World leaders committed to some efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, but the meeting illustrated the difficulty of carrying out an agenda when the United States is indifferent or hostile to many goals.
WASHINGTON — Officials at the Group of 20 summit meeting released a closing statement on Sunday that served as perhaps the Trump administration’s final reminder of the wide gulf between the United States and its allies on handling global threats like the coronavirus pandemic and climate change.
In its statement, or communiqué, the group emphasized what it called the “important mandates of the United Nations’ systems and agencies, primarily the W.H.O.,” referring to the World Health Organization, an agency Mr. Trump announced a withdrawal from in July, threatening to cut off one its largest sources of funding. The communiqué, released after a two-day virtual meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia, said the group supported strengthening the W.H.O.’s “overall effectiveness in coordinating and supporting the global response to the pandemic and the central efforts of member states.”
Over all, the communiqué offered little in terms of any breakthrough announcements beyond general appeals for more global cooperation and “affordable and equitable access” to therapeutics and vaccines. The lack of more significant initiatives underscored how difficult it is for the G20 to carry out an agenda when the United States is indifferent — Mr. Trump skipped part of the summit to play golf — or even hostile to many of its positions, even during a pandemic that has killed more than 1.3 million people globally. Continue reading.