For the second time in seven months, a gathering of the leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies will be eclipsed by a “sidelines” meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, who on Saturday will try to revive their countries’ stalled trade negotiations.
The encounter between the US and Chinese presidents in Osaka, Japan, comes just weeks after talks to end their year-long trade war broke down in acrimonious circumstances, with each side blaming the other for negotiating in bad faith and then raising punitive tariffs on about half of each other’s exports.
While both sides hope that they can at least restart formal trade negotiations after this weekend’s encounter between the two presidents, another bust-up is also possible if Mr Trump follows through on his earlier threat to impose tariffs on all Chinese exports to the US.