G20: World leaders arrive in Buenos Aires for key summit

World leaders have begun arriving in Argentina for the G20 summit as issues such as a trade war between the United States and China, the killing of a Saudi journalist in the country's Istanbul consulate and the conflict over Ukraine threatened to overshadow the gathering.

Heads of state from China, Italy, Canada, South Korea, Singapore and Turkey were among the first to arrive in Buenos Aires on Thursday.

They joined French president Emmanuel Macron and Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who arrived the previous day, the Daily Mail reports.
 

President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he headed to Buenos Aires, citing Russia's seizure of Ukrainian vessels as a source of tension in a relationship he has fostered in the face of criticism. He and First Lady Melania landed in Buenos Aires late on Thursday.

Theresa May became the first serving UK Prime Minister to visit Buenos Aires when she arrived - without husband Philip - and only the second to travel to the country, following a Tony Blair trip over the border from Brazil in 2001.

The long-running dispute over the Falkland Islands - still claimed as Las Malvinas by Argentina, 36 years after the 1982 war - is likely to be discussed in a one-on-one meeting with President Mauricio Macri, but is not thought likely to dominate the talks, which will focus on trade.

More awkward for Mrs May could be a potential encounter with Prince Mohammed, after the UK's condemnation of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October.

Asked whether Mrs May would be willing to shake the Crown Prince's hand, a senior UK official said the PM believed it was important to “engage” with Saudi Arabia and would take any opportunity to get across Britain's message on the need for “full accountability and full transparency” over the Khashoggi killing and an end to bloodshed in Yemen. 

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was supposed to arrive in Buenos Aires early on Friday, but her plane returned to Germany on Thursday night due to a technical problem.  

Mrs Merkel and German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz will resume their travel on Friday, but the long flight time means they will miss the opening of the summit.

The two-day summit beginning Friday is supposed to focus on development, infrastructure and food security.

But those seemed largely an afterthought amid soured US-European relations and as the US, Mexico and Canada hammered out the final language of a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement expected to be signed Friday.

However there was no mention of a USMCA ceremony in Canadian Prime Minister's Trudeau's G20 schedule as of late Thursday, amid speculation he could send his foreign minister to sign instead if Trump does not lift steel and aluminum tariffs. 

Michael Shifter, head of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank, said that this G-20 summit was once considered an opportunity for Latin American members Argentina, Brazil and Mexico “to project a regional bloc to shape a global agenda.”

But, he said, “that turned out to be a fleeting aspiration.”

“The fact that the G20 is taking place in South America for the first time is almost beside the point,” 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.”

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