Shinzo Abe is hosting this year’s G20 summit in Osaka on June 28-29. Ahead of the gathering of world leaders he highlights his ambitious agenda, which will focus on three key issues. As he says that each of the three is “particularly important” for Asia, it shows that the world economy is increasingly Asia-centric. The continent is home to half of the world’s population, and generates 35 to 40 percent of the global economy.

The author’s main goal is “working to maintain and ultimately strengthen the international order for free and fair trade.” Since Trump pulled out of Obama’s Trans-Pacific-Partnership deal soon after he took office, Asia’s leaders have redirected their focus on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), an advanced free-trade agreement between the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the six Indo-Pacific states (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand).

The second item on the agenda concerns the Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT) – a system that Japan advocates, to allow the free flow of data “under rules upon which all people can rely.” As our global economy is undergoing a digital transformation, the process has “enabled unique and unprecedented business models, but it has also brought new challenges, such as double non-taxation for multinational companies.” The author believes one can “resolve such issues only through international cooperation.” He also sees an overhaul of the WTO as a start.

The third issue for this year’s G20 summit is how to tackle global environmental challenges and to look for innovative solutions that prevent an armageddon. The goals outlined in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s “1.5˚C report” can not be achieved “through regulation alone.” It is essential to come up with “disruptive innovation” that would transform from “something negative into something positive,” in order to realise the goals.

The author’s agenda sounds very appealing, which reminds of the pioneering spirit of the first G20 summit held in November 2008, amid the turmoil that wracked global financial markets following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. There was a sense of determination among world leaders to cooperate and bring the world’s economy back on its fee. A decade on, the US, as leader of the free world, has embarked on an ill-fated trip of protectionism and isolationism.

The agenda – free and fair trade, and climate change – that the author proposes is hardly Trump’s cup of tea. For him, trade is a zero-sum game, and global warming a joke. He abandoned the Paris Agreement on climate change, and he is waging a trade war with much of the world on the pretext of reducing America’s exorbitant trade deficits.

Trump has no appetite to reform the World Trade Organisation, which deals with the global rules of trade between nations, whose main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible. In fact he has threatened to take the US out of WTO. The world is watching Trump’s moves and words closely. He knows that and looks forward to being showered with global attention.