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Pictured: Federal chancellor Angela Merkel meets Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for bilateral talks on Thursday 6 July, before the start of the G20 summit.Picture credit: Bundesregierung 

More than twenty heads of state or government as well as representatives of international organisations will meet at the Messehallen Convention Centre, in Hamburg, Germany.

Nineteen countries plus the EU meet annually to discuss international cooperation on financial and economic issues. Decisions made at the G20 summit help to bring reform at national and multinational levels. Multiple international organisations such as the United Nations and the World Bank also participate in the summit.

Germany’s G20 presidency, led by the German chancellor Angela Merkel, began on 1 December 2016 and will last until 20 November 2017, with the motto “shaping an interconnected world.”

Day one of the summit began at 10:00 with an official welcome by Merkel. The rest of the day will include talks on fighting terrorism, global growth and trade and sustainable development, climate and energy.

The German G20 agenda has three main focuses: ensuring stability, improving viability for the future and accepting responsibility and are detailed on the G20 official website. The 2017 summit is especially important as the world becomes increasingly more divided. Because of this, G20 will be focusing on terrorism, climate change and protectionism.

One main concern of Germany’s is to make progress on realising the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

"Since the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, we are more determined than ever before to make it a success," said Merkel in a government statement to the German Bundestag. "We want to master this existential challenge and we can master it, and we will not wait until the last people in the world are finally convinced by the crushing weight of the scientific evidence of climate change."

Many eyes are on US president Donald Trump as he meets with Russian president Vladimir Putin for the first time amid Russia’s meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. Trump tweeted on Friday 7 July that he’s looking forward to the meeting as they have “much to discuss.”

However, Merkel hopes that everyone at the summit will be able to work together in order “to find the right answers to the critical questions of our time.”