G20 summit kicks off looking to revive global economy
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Some thawing of relations appears to be happening at the G20 summit after President Biden met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for three hours on Monday. While Taiwan still remains an issue, the two sides agreed to resume climate talks, and touched upon supply chain stability, as well as health and food security. The language was also warmer, noting that there should be more incentives to work together as opposed to decoupling from "each other's economic development."
Bottom line: "We were candid and clear with one another across the board," Biden declared at a press conference. "I absolutely believe there need not be a new Cold War."
The summit will kick off in earnest on Tuesday, with a gathering of G20 nations (and the EU economic union) that accounts for more than 80% of global GDP. Divisions over Russia's war in Ukraine is shadowing the conference in many areas, which has the potential to sow discord among the participants, but they may find some unity as all the members face a darkening economic outlook. Looming recessions are the talk of the town, as well as instability over food and energy, and jumbo rate hikes to counter historically high inflation.
Go deeper: "Recognizing that the G20 is not the forum to resolve security issues, we acknowledge that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy," read a draft resolution that will reportedly be published at the summit. "Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy... There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions."