Xi Jinping and Donald Trump’s make-or-break chance in Argentina for a trade war ceasefire

Leaders of the world’s biggest economies are descending on Buenos Aires on Friday for the 10th G20 summit, with the unravelling international order and intense wrestling between China and the United States over trade and geopolitics casting a long shadow over the event.

Unlike the inaugural summit in Washington a decade ago at the height of the global financial crisis, this year’s gathering – the first in Latin America – appeared to have no firm goals, and expectations for a show of international solidarity were low, observers said.

With trade tensions on the rise, the G20 leaders, representing four-fifths of global economic output, will aim to avoid a repeat of the debacle at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Papua New Guinea two weeks ago, when for the first time in Apec’s nearly 20 years, leaders from the Asia-Pacific economies failed to issue a joint statement.

But it may not be easy now that friction between the world’s two biggest economies has gone well beyond a tariff dispute, and domestic political chaos in many countries threatens to throw the world into disarray. Leaders in Germany, France and Britain are grappling with turmoil at home; countries like Italy, Mexico and Brazil have turned to populist politicians; and this year’s G20 host, Argentina, is still reeling from its own economic crisis.

More important, the gradual disengagement between Beijing and Washington has left multilateral leadership gatherings, such as the G20, with little momentum to advance collective solutions to global political and economic woes, according to Pang Zhongying, a Beijing-based international relations expert.