El Sisi meets with world leaders; China’s Jinping warns that globaleconomy is at risk: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi attended the first day of meetings at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China, according to a statement from Ittihadiya. The first session reportedly focused on ways to strengthen coordination between states to facilitate global economic growth. Following the first day’s sessions, El Sisi attended a banquet hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping. El Sisi also met with a number of world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, among others.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry addressed the meeting of G20 foreignministers yesterday, where he reportedly “underlined the necessity of strengthening cooperation between the world’s largest economies and developing countries to help the latter achieve sustainable development and tackle challenges such as climate change,” according to Ahram Online.

“We should make the G20 an action team instead of a talk shop,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the opening ceremony, according to German news outlet DW, whose journalists were barred from reporting on the summit. Jinping also echoed statements made by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde made a day earlier over the dangers over protectionist resistance to global trade. “Growth drivers from the previous round of technological progress are gradually fading, while a new round of technological and industrial revolution has yet to gain momentum,” Jinping warned, Reuters reported.