2018 G20 Buenos Aires summit
The thirteenth meeting of the Group of Twenty (G20) took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from November 30th to December 1st, 2018. It was called the 2018 G20 Buenos Aires summit. It was the first time that the G20 met in South America.
| 2018 G20 Buenos Aires summit | |
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| Host country | Argentina |
| Date | 30 November – 1 December 2018 |
| Motto | Financial Markets and The World Economy |
| Venue(s) | Costa Salguero Center |
| Cities | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Participants | G20 members: Guest invitees:
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| Chair | Mauricio Macri, President of Argentina |
| Follows | 2017 G20 Hamburg Summit |
| Precedes | 2019 G20 Osaka Summit |
| Website | g20.org |
Preparations
Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri took over as G20 president for one year on November 30, 2017, in an event at the Kirchner Cultural Center in Buenos Aires. Supporting messages were sent by President Xi Jinping of China (2016 host), Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany (2017 host), and Prime Minister Shinzō Abe of Japan (2019 host). These messages were shown at the event.
When Argentina was in charge of the G20, the first talks took place in Bariloche in early December 2017. Along with the sherpas, there were deputy heads of the central bank and deputy ministers of finance with them. In the eleven cities across Argentina, more than 45 talks were held at different levels of government and in different areas in the lead-up to the G20 Summit on November 30, 2018.
Participating leaders
Participants in the G20 conference in Buenos Aires in 2018 are as follows:
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Participating guests
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Agenda priorities
In 2018, G20 Argentina proposed discussing the following topics: the future of employment; infrastructure for development; and a sustainable food future.
Several of the participating nations have stated that cryptocurrency legislation will be a top priority during the meeting.
The intensifying trade war between China and the United States in 2018 was a primary topic of discussion between the two countries at the summit.
Outcomes
On November 30, before the official start of the summit, U.S. President Donald Trump, outgoing Mexican President Peña Nieto, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). This is a plan to replace the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Counter-summit
The First World Forum of Critical Thinking, convened by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), was held in the week preceding the G20 gathering. The user did not provide any text to rewrite. The event was graced by the presence of notable political figures, including former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, Bolivian vice president Álvaro García Linera, former Colombian president Ernesto Samper, and noted human rights campaigner Estela de Carlotto. On the occasion, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the former president of Argentina, expressed her critique of the economic policies implemented by Mauricio Macri as well as the loans received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The invitation extended to former Uruguayan president José Mujica to participate at the counter-summit was denied, as he opted to abstain from involvement in order to prevent any potential harm to the diplomatic relations between Argentina and Uruguay.
Security
There were a lot of protests at the last summit in Hamburg, Germany. People burned down cars and stopped roads. So that those riots wouldn’t happen again, security was tightened at the 2018 summit. Left-wing groups in the area planned protests and asked activists from other countries to join them. Along with other governments, the Argentine government is trying to keep people from coming into the country who could cause trouble, like people who are wanted for crimes or who have called for violent actions. There will only be room for polite protests. “We will not allow illegal acts,” said Patricia Bullrich, the minister of federal security. People who want to cross the line will have to deal with the law. Along with police from the US, UK, Brazil, Italy, Spain, and other countries, 22,000 police officers and 700 security ministry agents will be on hand to protect the event. There will be a cordon around the Costa Salguero Convention Center that covers 12 square kilometers (4.6 square miles). All public transportation, including the metro, will be shut down, and driving along the River Plate will stop. The city of Buenos Aires declared Friday, November 30, a one-time public holiday. This was done to avoid the traffic that people’s daily activities cause, and people were told to leave the city for the long weekend. Media Minister Hernán Lombardi said that no infiltration by foreign terrorist groups had been found. The US government said that protesters from other countries would not come to Argentina because of how far away the country is.
Two bombs went off in the days before the meeting. Judge Claudio Bonadio was attacked in his home while looking into charges of embezzlement against former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. His bodyguards stopped Marco Viola, who was then arrested, and a police bomb team took down the bomb. Anahi Esperanza Salcedo, an anarchist and radical feminist, tried to blow up the tomb of the late police chief Ramón Lorenzo Falcón at La Recoleta Cemetery. Her bomb went off early, hurting her hand and face, and she had to go to the hospital. Both strikes were carried out with homemade bombs. The UK government changed its terrorism alert for Buenos Aires from “very likely” to “likely” after those events.