US seeks to narrow G20 agenda, treats summit as backdrop for Xi meeting: report

The United States is pushing to narrow the agenda for the Group of 20 summit it will host in December, with some participants complaining that Washington is treating the gathering as little more than a backdrop for a bilateral meeting between the US and Chinese leaders.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported Tuesday, citing two attendees at the second G20 Sherpa meeting held in Washington on June 29-30 to prepare a joint communiqué.

The US is set to host the G20 summit at the Trump National Doral resort in Miami, Florida, on Dec. 14-15.

The leaders of the US and China are expected to meet three more times this year — when Xi Jinping visits the United States in September, when Donald Trump attends the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, in November, and when Xi attends the G20 summit in December.

Attendees said the US had pressed to remove language on poverty alleviation, energy transition and gender, and instead sought to narrow the agenda to immigration, transnational crime, terrorism, foreign investment and fair trade.

One attendee said the US had been working since the first Sherpa meeting last December to craft language that serves its own interests rather than those of smaller or developing nations. The attendee criticized Washington for treating the G20 summit as "a nice backdrop for a photo op between the US and Chinese leaders."

The remarks come as the Trump administration has pulled back from the UN and other established international institutions while emphasizing a foreign policy that puts American interests first.

Russia has voiced similar frustrations. Marat Berdiyev, Russia's special envoy to the G20 and APEC, said the host country's conduct had been "not without flaws, to put it mildly." Russia was unable to attend G20 finance officials' meetings held in the US in April and May due to visa issues.

The White House and the Department of State did not respond to requests for comment.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said the two sides had reached a series of important common understandings at their May summit, adding that "both sides agreed to support each other in hosting the APEC summit and the G20 summit."