The tenth annual meeting of the G20 heads of states in Antalya, Turkey, starting Sunday Nov. 15 and concluding Monday, Nov. 16, which was going to discuss the economy, Syria, migration, and the environment, is expected to be completely overshadowed by the Paris bombings, security concerns, and ISIS terrorism. Antalya, in southwestern Turkey, considered the most visited destination in Turkey and the tenth most popular tourist spot in the world, is only a 10-hour leisurely drive from Latakia, Syria, home of the Russian fleet, with the Russian military currently engaged in air and land operations in that war-ravaged country.
The German newspaper Die Welt suggested that Russia’s playing-for-keeps involvement in the Syrian civil war will endow it with the kind of geopolitical clout its hasn’t enjoyed since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Die Welt predicts that we’re about to see Russian President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov running the table on Syria.
The fight against terrorism and the migrant problem are on agenda of the working dinner of the G20 leaders on Sunday.
According to Tass, the Russian president plans 4 separate meetings on the sidelines of the summit later on Sunday, with Chinese President Xi Jinping, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Erdogan. The meetings will be focused on Syria and Ukraine, including Ukraine’s $3 billion debt to Russia.
British Prime Minister David Cameron expects the meeting itself will be completely different from the one for which he had been preparing, the Guardian reported. On Saturday, Cameron sent a message to France saying, “Your pain is our pain. Your fight is our fight.” Working together against Islamist terrorism would be crucial, the PM believes.
The state of world economy will have to fight to grab the central spot it deserve this summit—but attention will definitely be paid the OECD’s lowering of its global growth forecast—twice in three months. Chinese President Xi Jinping will be asked about the slowdown in China’s economy; Argentina has an even tougher case to make, with an economy on the brink of a meltdown; Saudi Arabia will be dealing with the lowest oil prices in decades; and Brazil will seek help dealing with recession and runaway inflation.
Meanwhile, Turkey is heavily invested in keeping the summit terrorism-free: the event is expected to draw some 13,000 visitors, who will be monitored by high-tech surveillance cameras equipped with facial recognition and license tag recognition systems installed around the host site, according to Albawaba. The coast guard will provide protection from the sea, while aerial surveillance will monitor activity in the air, with a no-fly zone established around the site. The Turkish air force will continuously fly E-7T airborne early warning and control aircraft over Antalya’s skies, and has deployed F-16 fighter jets in Antalya airport to scramble in case of an emergency. Turkish security services have set up a command and control center to monitor the entire resort area.