Merkel's Impossible Role at the G20 Summit
With the U.S. trying to step out of some of the most important issues at the meeting, the German Chancellor was forced to play negotiator and host.
World leaders wrapped up the Group of 20 (G20) summit on Saturday by releasing their final statement, a communique that was remarkable this year in that it singled out the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. President Trump’s decision, which he announced in June, dragged out the negotiations well into into Saturday. At a press conference that marked the meetings’ end, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who hosted the summit in Hamburg, said she “deplored” the U.S. exit from the agreement.
The final statement read: “We take note of the decision of
