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MBS mingles with G20 leaders as Trump fuels summit tensions

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AFP Buenos Aires
Last Updated : Dec 01 2018 | 9:25 PM IST

Fissures on trade, climate change and Ukraine divided world leaders Friday as US President Donald Trump came under sustained fire and Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler came in from the cold at G20 talks.

The leaders of countries representing four-fifths of the global economy opened a two-day meeting in Argentina facing the deepest fractures since the first G20 summit convened 10 years ago in the throes of financial crisis.

Trump was attacked for destroying the group's past unity on trade and climate change. But he won a breakthrough with the signing of a new trade pact for North America and, having ignited a trade war with China, touted "good signs" ahead of a dinner Saturday with President Xi Jinping.

In remarks to the summit relayed by the Xinhua news agency, Xi reaffirmed his pledges of economic reform "with increased efforts in intellectual property rights protection and more imports."
Although the new pact inherits key features from the old one, Trump has declared it a victory for the US workers he claims were cheated by NAFTA and on Friday called it the most "modern and balanced agreement in history."

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First Published: Dec 01 2018 | 9:25 PM IST

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