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Avoid empty talk, Xi asks G20 meet
HANGZHOU: Leaders of the world’s biggest powers met on Sunday to try to revive the sluggish world economy, with their host Chinese President Xi Jinping urging them
HANGZHOU: Leaders of the world’s biggest powers met on Sunday to try to revive the sluggish world economy, with their host Chinese President Xi Jinping urging them to avoid “empty talk”.
Xi welcomed each president and prime minister to the Group of 20 summit with a handshake and had an extended clasp with Barack Obama, with both men smiling despite protocol stumbles around the US leader’s visit.
In a circular conference hall in Hangzhou -- the scenic eastern city left deserted by a vast security operation -- Xi told them the G20 “should work with real action, with no empty talk”.
Xi said the global economy “still faces multiple risks and challenges including a lack of growth momentum and consumption, turbulent financial markets, receding global trade and investment”.
“We hope the Hangzhou summit will come up with a prescription for the world economy and lead it back to the road of strong, balanced, comprehensive and sustainable growth.”
NO DEAL ON SYRIA
The summit was preceded by a flurry of diplomatic activity on issues ranging from climate change and the war in Syria to international trade. There had been hopes for another breakthrough, on the long war in Syria, after the US said it was close to a deal with Russia on stemming the violence.
But negotiations between Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterpart Sergei Lavrov yielded only an agreement to convene again on Monday, with Russia accused of “walking back” on key issues.
Moscow and Washington support opposite sides in the conflict, which erupted in March 2011 after President Bashar al-Assad unleashed a brutal crackdown against a pro-democracy revolt.
Successive rounds of international negotiations have failed to end a conflict that has left more than 290,000 people dead and forced millions to flee, a key contributor to migrant flows into Europe. EU President Donald Tusk said Europe was “close to limits” on its ability to accept new waves of refugees.
