Saudi King Tweets During Opening Speech... Live Broadcast
No Mention of Need to Share COVID-19 Vaccines with Poor Countries
[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] U.S. President Donald Trump posted a tweet during the G20 virtual summit expressing his refusal to accept the results of the U.S. presidential election. President Trump, who has been holed up in the White House without official schedules since the election, attended the virtual meeting and was reported to have headed to a golf course immediately after the summit.
According to Bloomberg News on the 21st (local time), during the G20 virtual summit held that morning, President Trump was seen lowering his head while staring at something on his desk as Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud delivered the opening remarks. Saudi Arabia is the chair country of this G20 summit, and the opening remarks were broadcast live on the official website along with the appearances of other national leaders attending the meeting.
As the Saudi king's opening remarks were concluding, President Trump's tweet posted a statement from Michigan Republican state legislators who met at the White House the previous day, stating, "We will show massive unprecedented (voting) fraud." The meeting the day before was intended by President Trump, who refuses to accept the election results, to gain support within the Republican Party. However, the participants issued a statement after the meeting saying, "There is currently no information to overturn the election results," leading to an assessment that President Trump suffered a 'blow of misfortune.'
Later, during the G20 virtual summit, President Trump spoke when it was his turn. He claimed, according to Bloomberg News, that under his watch, the U.S. strengthened NATO with Europe, fought terrorism, made the world safer, and praised the low unemployment rate and surging demand in the U.S. economy, asserting that the U.S. was efficient in fighting the pandemic. However, unlike other world leaders who mentioned the global distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, he reportedly did not mention the need to share vaccines with other countries, especially impoverished nations.
Bloomberg News reported that President Trump headed to his golf course in Virginia immediately after the G20 summit. Bloomberg criticized, saying, "While world leaders discussed issues from the pandemic to climate change, President Trump's thoughts were elsewhere, focused on the dispute over the U.S. election," emphasizing "his indifference to such multilateral meetings."
According to the White House schedule, President Trump is also set to attend the G20 virtual summit on the morning of the 22nd. Previously, President Trump participated in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) virtual summit held the day before. This was his first participation in three years since 2017, reportedly decided at the last minute. This has been interpreted as an attempt by President Trump, who refuses to accept the election defeat and has been largely inactive publicly, to show his presence and convey an image of managing state affairs and diplomacy.
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