G20

The EU executive will discuss further measures with Italy and Greece in the coming week to help the Mediterranean states deal with irregular migrants, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared headed for a collision course with U.S. President Donald Trump on June 29 after vowing to make a stand next week for climate protection and open markets at what is expected to be the most fractious G-20 summit in years.

Germany says it does not expect Turkish security agents who were charged for violent scuffles in Washington last month to join President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a G20 summit next week.

A spokesman said leaders can bring their own bodyguards to the summit in Hamburg, but the law must be respected.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble expressed the estimation that a deal would be reached on the Greek matter at the next EuroGroup meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 15. Addressing a conference on the prospects of the G20 nations in Berlin, Mr. Schauble said “We will make it on Thursday. You will see.”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump are "in favour" of meeting on the sidelines of a G20 summit to be held in Germany in July, the Kremlin said Tuesday, AFP reported.

European Union finance ministers admitted on April 8 that the world's 20 biggest economies (G-20) will miss their target of generating additional economic growth through reforms by 2018 and called for reflection on why they have failed.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek said March 18 that Turkey has sent almost $1 billion worth of aid to Somalia since 2011 as a part of the country's Africa strategy.      

Turkey's ambassador to Argentina on Jan. 30 hailed the political and economic importance of Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu's four-nation South American tour this week.        

Meral Barlas said Argentina has the third-biggest economy in South America and stressed the importance of numerous areas where Turkey can have an economic relationship with Latin America.        

The day after the G-20 Hangzhou Summit in China, I read an article in the Jakarta Post. "The G-20 needs a kick in the butt" was its title. The author, the veteran Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani, was asking G-20 countries to leave their 19th century-esque national trenches, finally arrive in the 21st century and start thinking globally.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said that North Korea's fifth nuclear test "will have serious consequences."

The newspaper Guardian is reporting this on its website quoting Reuters, and adding that Obama was briefed about Pyongyang's actions by his advisers after returning from the the G20 and ASEAN meetings.