Who needs the G20? Question gets louder in Osaka

I thik it is good. By meeting each other, they can alleviate their hostile feelings and can have talks to solve misunderstandings. They may also be able to hear their true intentions. It is necessary since the United Nations is not functioning.

Japan failed to achieve a top priority of the summit's host, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: Forging a stronger, unanimous commitment to the Paris climate accords -- due to U.S. resistance.

More proof that Abe once again is not a diplomat and out of his depth on the world stage. If this truly was a top priority for Abe then he should have KNOWN that agreements like this are next to impossible to gain a unanimous backing without a ton of behind the scenes negotiations and arm twisting.

The US has been against the accords ever since Trump took office, and Abe knew damn well that Trump wasn't going to agree and Abe shouldn't have made this a priority from the start.

Abe had staked his chairmanship largely on moving the ball forward on climate change, but Osaka's outcome seems only to have underlined the bloc's ineffectiveness, with the final declaration merely repeating language used last year.

More like Abe's being ineffective. When you set the stakes too high, you are bound to fail! Just like Abe's "urges", he thinks people will act because of his desires.

The G-20 is useless, and just a chance for leaders to get some free face time!

It may be one a waste of money but it does give the opotunity for comminucation which may not be possible in another setting. To quote the late great Dr Stephen Hawkin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ7zbzJZsjs

Why are they sitting at school desks?

most if not all are millionaires if not billionaires and are more comfortable sitting behind tables made from guilded skulls coated in gold. At least take the time to go shopping Japan. Small suggestion "IKEA" it's a big step but a first step.

These past couple of days have had these clowns "expressing concerns" over trade etc. yada yada yada.

You've got the invader of Crimea; the poisoning murderer of Sergei Skripal, his daughter in England and Viktor Yushchenko about 10 years ago; the murderer of journalist Kasshogi and the enforcer of the famine in Yemen; the jailer of intellectuals, artists, and activists in China all in one place - BUT none of these pickleheads have the guts to call each other out on any of these things.

What's the point of bringing all these money grubbing moguls together anyway?

By meeting each other, they can alleviate their hostile feelings and can have talks to solve misunderstandings

Yes but they can also use it for nefarious purposes as well.

Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong has used a sideline interview to show China how much Singapore has swung away from liberalism and towards Communist China. He is now openly supporting Pol Pot, the murderous regime that China backed in Cambodia, calling the Vietnamese (short, enter & left) intervention (to save Cambodians & Vietnamese minorities) as a regretable invasion. In the process upsetting both the Cambodian and Vietnamese government.

These are the kinds of singular events that's so pernicious to humanity that it ought to be stamped out not promoted in a world forums.

The G20 summit is no more than another venue for the US to bully the remaining G19, for the US to exert its dominance. The Group need to form a trading sphere among themselves at the exclusion of the US, trade among themselves and boycott trading with the US. The US is only as much of a bully as the other nations allow it to be. See how long the US could continue bullying if the globe stopped trading with it.

Time to change the rules. Let’s adopt some Bhutanism. Let’s look for happiness rather than money. Sorry banks and consumerism. This endless race for more economy is waring some of us out. Make due with what we have..and it’s a lot. Make new homes while millions go abandoned. Centralize to big cities while the countryside is ignored. We have a generation of youth who have never stepped on a farm or touched an animal that didn’t exist inside a house wall. There’s a whole new world to be discovered. It’s not all about spending and feeing the economy. Let’s feed our souls a bit.

Russia's Vladimir Putin said in the summit run-up that the liberalism long championed by G20 heavyweights Europe and the U.S. was "obsolete".

Liberalism championed by the U.S., eh? That would just be the Democrats.

Most of the deals that were agreed upon throughout the history of the G20 were always the ones held behind doors when leaders were separated from each other. The G20 was simply a media front in order to give the appearance of cooperation and teamwork.

It does give the opportunity for some leaders to get together and hash certain things out, but these meetings are just a photo op.

German leader Angela Merkel's career is in its twilight, and Osaka's outcomes will likely underline doubts over Japan's effectiveness.

It can not be helped if I feel that way. Now, Germany's economy is dying.　No country can support her. The amount of money having the problem easily exceeds the national budget. She has no choice but to pray.

 Small suggestion "IKEA" it's a big step but a first step.

they need to buy that brand name expensive furniture, have to spend every last yen of their yearly budget or they cant request more the following year

Canada's leader is also useless. China is running roughshod over that country and all he comes up with is paper juice box water bottles sort of things.

Cricky, you took the words right out of my mouth. Those look like the very same desks that I bang my knees on. There is something satisfying about these oversized bullies all crammed into their school desks...

Who needs the G-20? Other criminals to shuffle envelpoes of bribes and hush money. All the while selling us off to highest corporate and bankster bidders.

@riperez

"... for the US to bully the remaining G19, for the US to exert its dominance."

The day China when overtakes the US as the global dominant power (abetted by Western globalists) will be the day when all of us, including yourself, will cherish the good old days.

It still is a good idea to see what the other countries are which are considered the world's more powerful and see how they are performing . . . I think this is important for the world public to understand and know about.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G20

See also G-10, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_ofTen(economics)

See also G-7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Seven

The G-20 is a farce, a hapless bunch of dopey globalists minus 1.

The kids in Osaka four days off school so it wasn’t that bad!