THE RAGTAG "TWENTY"

The outcomes of all the G20 summits can be grouped in two conventional parts - official and unofficial. The official outcomes always relate to the previously announced agenda, are usually fixed in the final declaration and cause a rather restrained interest for a few good reasons. First, all decisions of the G20 are declarative in nature. Secondly, the range of issues that the heads of the most influential countries try to cover in two days is so wide that it is simply impossible to reach an effective agreement on most of them. Therefore, the media is mostly interested in the informal outcomes, which are mainly derived from bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit. The press is also attracted by anti-globalization protests, which, like liqueur cherries, traditionally adorn this two-layer cake called G20. Incidentally, the last protest actions were unprecedented. So, the 12th G20 summit held at the Hamburg Exhibition Center on July 7-8 was not an exception.

Climatic discord

Although it seems less important, the main task of the G20 (an informal union of the world's 19 leading countries, the European Union, and representatives of major international financial institutions) is to try to find answers to the most pressing problems of the world economy. The central economic theme has always been diluted with a standard set of international events such as climate, corruption, health, migration, international terrorism, women's rights, digital security, etc. As observers say, this time it took longer than usual to prepare the final communique due to the U.S. position on climate issues. At the beginning of the summer, Donald Trump, withdrew Washington from the Paris Accord, as he promised, saying that it was unfair in principle, encroaching on the national wealth of the United States and could cost the Americans 2.7 million jobs by 2025. Any attempts to convince Trump were in vain. Even Merkel could not help to rule out the situation with her determination. The U.S. president, talking with Putin at that time, demonstratively did not attend the official part of the G20 summit dedicated to climate problems. As a result, the document reflects two different positions - the United States and all participants of the G20. No matter what the German Chancellor tried to do arguing that the Paris Accord would still work, it was clear that without the United States it lacks much. The biggest danger is the escape of other participants, as hinted by Turkey, which agrees to fulfill the terms of the treaty, but not as an industrial country of the first row. Russia made it clear that it would insist on including a clause on the absorbing capacity of its forests in the regulatory documents.

As for the economy, world leaders once again recognized the importance of open markets, fight against protectionism and the supremacy of WTO rules in determining the principles of international trade. The global financial system will be kept as transparent as possible. Thus, by the end of 2018, information on financial accounts should begin to be exchanged. It is noteworthy that even in Hamburg the organizers feared objections from Trump, who repeatedly threatened the participants with protectionist measures, mainly against China and Mexico. The experts were able to formulate the general provisions so broadly that everyone was satisfied: the participating states are ready to support the free trade, but at the same time, they have right to protect own markets.

G20 will fight the terrorism as before, resolutely. Cybersecurity is recognized as a priority. The participants decided to solve the migration crisis in situ, that is by providing economic and humanitarian assistance to the suffering countries, suppliers of migrants. As a result, assistance will be given to Africa as well. In general, the Black Continent is remembered at any serious international event - they are going to create jobs there, resolve conflict situations, raise the economy and agriculture, and improve healthcare. Although there are no special results so far.

It is not surprising that the statements of the G20 leaders and their final declaration greatly infuriated the antiglobalists, who follow the G20 meetings as fans of popular rock stars. The activists live in tents, spend nights in police stations, draw witty posters, declare their speeches, turn over and fire the cars, fight, throw stones, firecrackers, that is having a good time, although they all think it is extremely important for the whole planet. Does somehow the violent anti-globalization activity affect the decisions and the mood of the G20 members? No. Moreover, sometimes it seems that they are bored without antiglobalists, otherwise they would not hold their meetings in a secluded and inaccessible place for ordinary mortals, but they would strive persistently to the centers of large cities, where numerous police brigades are required to guard the event. In Hamburg, in this "free Hanseatic city", many support the left as a rule. During the elections to the local parliament in 2015, Merkel’s CDU scored 3% of the votes while the left scored 10 times more. So, the protests were apparently successful - 213 policemen and several dozen rioters received injuries of varying severity, and one of the most popular slogans of protests was "Welcome to Hell". Among the injured were also the burned auto shop Porsche and the First Lady of the United States Melanya Trump, whom the riots prevented from joining the program of events for the spouses of leaders of the G20 countries.

"Trumputin"

However, perhaps a more secluded place is not chosen because it presupposes some kind of secrecy, sort of a "club for one's own". Therefore, the G20 platform is as broad as possible and designed to provide an opportunity to communicate personally with those leaders who are not “mature” for official visits to each other. In this sense, the summit in Hamburg was the meeting of the presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

Both leaders talked much longer than planned and even agreed to something. Given the current level of the U.S.-Russian relations, Trump's unpredictability and the fact that he is the third "new" American president for Putin, the conversation captured attention of the world media. Judging from the personal comments of the presidents, "positive chemistry" has developed between them and "personal relationships have been established." Later, Trump wrote on his Twitter account that "it's time to move on constructive cooperation with Russia," and Putin said that "the negotiations in Hamburg were just the beginning of the discussion". Putin also added that “the television Trump is very different from the real man, who is absolutely specific and adequately perceives his interlocutor”.

Since it was a closed meeting, nothing else is available in fact. For American journalists, the most desired topic was the question of Russia's interference in the course of presidential elections in the U.S. As Tillerson and Lavrov later told, Trump repeatedly asked about this - "repeatedly pressed on Putin" and "he vehemently denied". Then the presidents discussed Syria, welcoming the international community with a statement that the ceasefire is now in effect in the south of this Arab republic (Derea, al-Quneitra and Suweida), which will be enforced by the Russian military forces in coordination with the Americans and Jordanians. Humanitarian access is also organized and contact is established between the opposition and the monitoring center, which is being established in the capital of Jordan. Of course, this agreement was met very positively. So, even few people noticed that the most problematic zone in Syria was still not in the south, but in the east and in the north, where the actual capital of the ISIS, Raqqa, is located and where one more side is added to the numerous and diverse participants of the Syrian conflict - The Kurds. Therefore, based on the results of a single conversation between Putin and Trump, it is too early to make positive forecasts on Syria. As well as for Ukraine, which also was in the center of attention of the leaders of Russia and the U.S. The Americans announced the appointment of a special representative to assist efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, Kurt Volker, who is due to visit Moscow in the near future. It is agreed to create a channel between the Russian and American representatives. The U.S. demonstrates active involvement in resolving the crisis in the southeast of Ukraine, which, by the way, directly relates the issue of anti-Russian sanctions. Until this issue is fully resolved, relations between Moscow and Washington will not return to the previous level. Yes, and the "chemistry" between Trump and Putin too does not say anything. The Trumputin union remains just a delusional fantasy of some political scientists and journalists. Russia and the U.S. remain rivals in many areas. The best illustration of this is that the Russian presidential aircraft en-route to Hamburg made a detour of 500 kilometers to fly around the countries that are part of the NATO bloc. As for Trump, he managed to get to Hamburg before going to Poland, where the first batch of American liquefied natural gas had already arrived and where eight American Patriot air defense systems would soon be installed.

"Mackerel"

Among other interesting meetings of the summit was the conversation between Angela Merkel and the French President Emmanuel Macron. All European media noted the special warmth of this meeting, and in Paris and Berlin they expressed the hope that French-German cooperation could open a new page for the benefit of the whole EU. After Brexit and the scandalous decisions of Trump on climate and free trade zone between Europe and the U.S., Merkel said that Europe needed to rely on itself. Macron holds the same opinion. Even a new word appeared for this union - Mackerel. By the way, Mackerel actively advocates for attracting more Chinese investments in Europe. In turn, the British Prime Minister Theresa May also intensively established contacts with Japan, China and the U.S., and all other countries - non-members of the EU. Apparently, the dialogue between the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Angela Merkel was very difficult. As the German Chancellor noted, there are deep disagreements between Ankara and Berlin. By the way, the European Parliament again urged to suspend negotiations on Turkey's accession to the EU.

These are the general outcomes of the G20 summit. It was not expected that they would any bring significant political results, but at the same time it outlined some important trends. Thus, it is possible to state the beginning of a failure on climate issues, which was expected. As for the economy, everything will depend on further negotiations based on the own interests of each country, and therefore, as always, no one is in a hurry to make unambiguous and categorical steps. The U.S. president no longer demonstrates unanimity with the European leaders, which is very annoying and puzzling. As a result, a unique situation has developed, when the West does not act on such an international platform from a unified position. But it seems that a new Franco-German cooperation is emerging. It is also remarkable that Russian-American relations in the near future will be built on the basis of personal relationships between Putin and Trump. It is difficult to guess what this union can lead to but in any case information provided by the media is only a tip of the iceberg. The key outcomes of the summit remained only in the minds of their participants.