Another bilateral meeting — between the host, President Xi, and
Russian President Vladimir Putin — is expected to be much more pleasant
for both sides. In mid-August, a senior Chinese diplomat, cited by South
China Morning Post, told the media outlet that Putin would be guest No.
1 at the annual gathering of leaders with the Sino-Russian friendship,
dubbed a "bromance" in the West, proving an exhibit of good diplomacy.
It will be in evident contrast to the reception the Russian leader
received at the 2014 G20 summit in Australia's Brisbane, which he left
abruptly before the final communique was issued, following critical
remarks by Western leaders over the Ukraine crisis, citing the need to
get some sleep.
China is Russia’s second largest trading partner, after the
European Union, while Russia is one of the leading oil suppliers to
China. The two countries are also united through membership of regional
organizations like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, with
Moscow also being supportive of the New Development Bank and the Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank, headquartered in China and widely seen
in the West as a challenge to the US-led IMF and the World Bank.
At the end of June, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said
that he would meet Putin on the sidelines of the summit. Also in June,
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov announced that Putin
might meet US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 summit,
although later the president's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said no
decision about such a bilateral meeting had been taken as yet.According to Harry Broadman, Obama's appearance will be one of the
political threads to watch. "Since this will be US President Barrack
Obama’s last G20 Summit, he may use the occasion to push issues he cares
deeply about: climate change and cyber warfare," the expert predicted.
The environmental topic may be given further impetus by Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau, who arrived in China on August 30 for his first
official visit to the country. "As Canada's Justin Trudeau is coming to
the G20 with climate change as a high priority he and Xi could join to
give the summit real impetus to succeed here," John Kirton suggested.
The conflicts in Syria and Ukraine are also expected to be
discussed during the backstage talks. On Wednesday, French government
spokesman Stephane Le Foll said, that President Francois Hollande plans
to discuss settlement of the Syrian conflict with Vladimir Putin and
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Hangzhou. According to media
speculation, Hollande and Putin may also meet with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel to discuss the prospects for reconciliation in Ukraine.
However, on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the German chancellery could
not confirm to Sputnik that such a trilateral meeting would take place.
Finally, the summit will see an informal meeting of the leaders of
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the so-called BRICS group
of emerging economies, which may be put in the spotlight by the recent
impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's former president, succeeded by
her ally-turned-opponent Michel Temer. Heading to China, the
newly-appointed Brazilian leader assured that his participation in G20
would "reveal to the world that we have political and legal stability."
More Work for Security Personnel, More Vacations for Hangzhou CitizensAlmost all G20 summits have been notoriously and mostly remembered
for violent anti-globalist protests outside the summit venues. The
Hangzhou summit will not follow suit in this regard.
Authorities in Hangzhou have declared a week-long holiday, starting on
September 1, offering residents free admission to tourist attractions in
nearby cities, prompting them to leave the city for the dates of the
summit. They also imposed 10-day restrictions on trucks and tractors
entering the city and surrounding areas and forced half of the city’s
cars off the road from 2 a.m. to midnight each day, depending on their
number plate.
Similar limits were introduced during the 2008 Summer Olympics and
the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing, which
helped not only to temporarily decrease the host city's population but
also to get rid of notorious smog caused by heavy air pollution.
In April, China asked the countries taking part in the G20 summit to
provide lists of possible terror groups and terrorists who might target
the meeting. Closer to the world leaders' gathering, the authorities
beefed up security measures at Shanghai’s two main airports and railway
stations, implementing two-level security checks for passengers
departing for Hangzhou.
Media reports ahead of the summit speculated that the city spent
some 160 billion yuan ($24 billion) on the G20 summit, thus exceeding
the Brazilian city of Rio’s $5 billion expenditure on the Olympic Games.
Hangzhou officials have denied the claims, stating that city's annual
municipal budget was much less than the figures quoted and emphasized
that all G20 conference centers and infrastructure investments had been
previously planned and not exclusively constructed for the summit needs.