Chris Riotta, Shehab Khan, Peter Stubley, Samuel Osborne – The Independent
The G20 Summit in Argentina kicked off with world leaders huddling on the sidelines to discuss their response to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was seen discussing the death with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who appeared to be ignored during the group’s official “family photo” portrait session.
Meanwhile, confusion remains over whether Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet during the summit.
The president kicked off Friday morning with a series of angry tweets after the White House reaffirmed he had cancelled an expected discussion with Mr Putin, despite the Kremlin claiming otherwise.
“Oh, I get it! I am a very good developer, happily living my life, when I see our Country going in the wrong direction (to put it mildly). Against all odds, I decide to run for President & continue to run my business-very legal & very cool, talked about it on the campaign trail…,” he tweeted.
“….Lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in Russia. Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn’t do the project. Witch Hunt!”
Reports suggest Mr Trump is in a “terrible mood” and “completely distracted” as he headed to the event.
The president responded to news of Mr Cohen’s plea deal by saying he was a “weak person and not a very smart person.”
Mr Trump will be having a number of meetings at the summit in Buenos Aires starting the day at 6.50am local time and finishing 10.10pm. He said on Thursday he had cancelled a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, due to the country’s conflict with Ukraine.
The president has downgraded a number of his bilateral meetings as he feels “there’s nothing in them for him”, according to CNN.
Issues such as the trade war between the US and China and the conflict over Ukraine are likely to dominate the agenda.
Ahead of the summit Mr Trump said current tariff levels on Chinese imports would rise as planned.
The summit is being held in South America for the first time and Michael Shifter, head of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank, said G20 summits wer once considered an opportunity for Latin American members Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to shape the global agenda.
“That turned out to be a fleeting aspiration,” Mr Shifter said.
“…Argentine president Mauricio Macri, the summit’s host, has lowered expectations. … Now a success would be a summit meeting that goes smoothly, without any major disruption.”