U.S. President Donald Trump arrived for a G20 summit in Hamburg on Thursday risking isolation on climate policy and the wrath of anti-capitalist protesters threatening to disrupt the meeting of the world’s leading economic powers.
Trump, who paused to wave as he descended the steps of Air Force One with his wife Melania, faces a testy confrontation with leaders of the other big G20 economies after deciding last month to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris climate deal.
Trade policy is another area of contention at the summit, which protesters have vowed to disrupt. “Welcome to Hell” was their greeting for Trump and other world leaders arriving in Hamburg for the two-day meeting which formally starts on Friday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, hosting the meeting, said she was committed to an open international trading system, despite fears of U.S. protectionism under the Trump administration.
“We’re united in our will to strengthen multilateral relations at the G20 summit … We need an open society, especially open trade flows,” Merkel, who is running for a fourth term in a September election, said in Berlin.
There were options for finding a solution on climate, she said on her arrival in Hamburg, adding that as the summit’s host she would work to find avenues for compromise.
