Showdown in Hamburg

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/opinion/g20-trump-angela-merkel.html

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Stopping over in Poland on his way to the Group of 20 summit meeting in Germany gives President Trump a chance to briefly bask in the acclaim of a right-wing, illiberal Polish leadership before he starts taking flak from more powerful allies like Germany and France. The host of the gathering, Chancellor Angela Merkel, has made clear that she intends to focus on issues on which Mr. Trump has sharply parted ways with much of the European Union, including trade, climate change and migration.

Mr. Trump’s first visit to Europe in May left plenty of bruises, raising serious doubts among European leaders about his commitment not only to old and valued alliances but also to America’s traditional leadership role in the world, and it will be interesting to see whether he is in healing mode this time around. In Brussels, speaking at NATO headquarters, Mr. Trump lectured allies on their financial contributions and failed to reaffirm NATO’s mutual defense pledge. The Group of 7 meeting in Sicily shortly thereafter exposed further divisions over policy, and a week later Mr. Trump announced he was pulling the United States out of the landmark Paris agreement on fighting global warming.

Ms. Merkel, who declared after the G-7 meeting that American leadership can no longer be relied on, has been marshaling her forces, in tandem with President Emmanuel Macron of France, for the meeting of the G-20, a larger and more powerful grouping consisting of the leaders of 19 major powers and the European Union. In a speech to her Parliament last week she declared, in an unmistakable allusion to Mr. Trump, that “anybody who believes the problems of the world can be solved with isolationism and protectionism is making a big mistake.”

There could well be fireworks outside the meeting halls as well. Thousands of protesters have descended on Hamburg — a city with a long history of protests and riots, where the meeting will be held Friday and Saturday — to demonstrate against everything from globalization and capitalism to the controversial leaders who will be there, most notably Mr. Trump, President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.

Side meetings are also expected to generate heat. The most keenly watched will be the first formal meeting of Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin. Though the White House says there is no formal agenda, the investigations underway in Washington into Russia’s election meddling, the continuing sanctions against Russia and differing goals in the Syrian war are potential minefields. Mr. Trump also faces ticklish encounters with the Chinese, Japanese and South Korean leaders over the North Korean nuclear threat, especially after its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

But the overriding question is whether Mr. Trump can reach some sort of détente with other leaders, and not just the Europeans — the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has come out in favor of climate controls and open trade. Mr. Macron, though closely aligned with Germany on all major issues, has argued against isolating Mr. Trump in Hamburg, and in fact has invited him to Paris for Bastille Day celebrations on July 14.

A lot depends, of course, on Mr. Trump. No embrace from Poland’s leaders can hide the fact that, at least so far, he has rejected American leadership and participation in a rules-based, forward-looking world order striving to safeguard the planet, expand global trade and find room for the “homeless, tempest-tost.” The best outcome of the summit meeting would be for him to “return to reason,” as Mr. Macron recently put it. But with Mr. Trump or without him, the rest of the leaders should make abundantly clear that they remain fully committed to the Paris agreement on climate change and to what Ms. Merkel calls a “networked world.”