Movies That Inspired World Leaders At The G20 Summit

NEW DELHI: The G20 summit in Brisbane concluded with world leaders agreeing to boost flagging global growth, address climate change and crack down on tax avoidance. A communique issued at the end of the summit pledged to “add more than $2 trillion to the global economy and create millions of jobs,” and committed to tackle global tax avoidance. Security and climate change dominated the agenda, with the final communique calling for effective action to address climate change with the eventual aim of adopting a protocol with legal force at a UN climate conference in Paris in 2015.

However, the summit had its share of drama, with an isolated Russian President, a bar-hopping German Chancellor, a super-politician Indian PM, an awkward Australian PM attempting to woo a Chinese Premier crush, and of course, the resident bully. In fact, the summit could be the perfect setting for the next blockbuster.

To elaborate, here are a list of movies that seem to have inspired the antics of the political elite at the G20 summit.

Indian PM Narendra Modi
Movie Inspiration: “Singham Returns”

Supercop Bajirao Singham, played by Ajay Devgan, gets transferred to Mumbai, and finds one of his team members dead with large bags of money. The movie is about Singham’s efforts to ‘clean the system’ whilst battling challenges posed by a political nexus seeking to maintain status quo vis a vis corruption, specifically, black money.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took on the ‘Superpolitician’ avatar of Singham, stepping up efforts to win international support in his fight to ‘clean the system’, specifically in the country’s fight against “black money.”

"I urge every jurisdiction, especially tax havens, to provide information for tax purposes in accordance with treaty obligations," PM Modi said whilst addressing a session titled "Delivering Global Economic Resilience" during the G20 summit in Australia.

Like Singham, PM Modi was successful. At the end of the two-day summit, the G20 issued a communique including a pledge to modernise international tax rules to ensure greater transparency. The Indian media responded in true Bollywood style: exaggeration and dramatization. The Hindustan Times, for instance, said that "the reference to transparency, which was not there in the draft communique", was incorporated after Modi's "strong intervention", calling the inclusion a “victory” for India.

Russian President Vladimir Putin
Movie inspiration: “Mean Girls”

“You can’t sit with us”: the phrase made famous by 2004 American teen comedy “Mean Girls” hit hard at Russian President Vladimir Putin this G20 summit. The Russian President was clearly isolated by western leaders over Ukraine, with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, US President Barack Obama, and UK Prime Minister David Cameron all making their displeasure clear. In fact, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, shaking Putin’s hand said, “ "I guess I will shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine." Ouch.

In another (not-so) subtle snub, whilst the Australia's governor general and attorney general greeted President Obama and China's Xi Jinping upon their arrival, Putin instead was greeted by the country's assistant defense minister.

“If threats of tighter sanctions didn't do the job of showing Putin that western leaders were serious about Ukraine, lunch certainly did the trick. At a barbecue held during the summit, Putin was spotted sitting across from just Dilma Rousseff at a large table. Rousseff seemed to be more focused on her tasmanian ocean trout than her lunch partner. Al Jazeera journalist Andrew Thomas described Putin as "isolated" at lunch,” noted the Global Post.

Let this video prove our point.



Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Chinese President Xi Jinping
Movie inspiration: “Superbad”



Remember the scene in “Superbad” where Evan tries to smoothly chat up Becca, going in for a friendly arm punch and instead, whacking her in the sensitive chest area?

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott managed the political variant of the scene whilst trying to woo Chinese President Xi Jinping. Toasting President Xi at special dinner at parliament house, PM Abbott, who was summing up the day’s developments after the two nations reached agreement on a free trade deal, hit President Xi in the political ‘sensitive chest area’. The Australian Prime Minister confused China for Tasmania.

“To mark President Xi’s visit, Australia and Tasmania and, and — we’ve said a lot about Tasmania — Australia and China have reached agreements,” PM Abbott said.

Like Becca, President Xi brushed off the gaffe.

US President Barack Obama
Movie inspiration: “Better off Dead”



Remember the paperboy in 1980s romantic comedy “Better off Dead”? That kid just really wanted his two dollars.

Kind of like how President Obama just wants the world to promise to tackle climate change. "If China and the United States can agree on this, then the world can agree on this. We can get this done and it is necessary for us to get it done," Obama said, referring to a recent deal between the US and China where both have promised to cut emissions. At the same speech, Obama committed $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund.

In fact, President Obama was instrumental in overriding host Australia's attempts to keep climate change off the formal agenda.

Like the paperboy, President Obama got on a few people’s nerves. Briggs, Australia’s Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development called the US President a “distraction.” "Whatever Barack Obama did on the weekend was going to be a distraction. That's the reality," he told Sky News. "He's a massive, a massive distraction wherever he is." So was the paperboy. It’s all about the two dollars, sorry, we mean climate change action.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Movie inspiration: “The Hangover”



“The Hangover” needs no introduction. The film tells the story of four friends who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, only to wake up the next day with no memory of the previous night's events.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel needs no introduction either. The German leader traveled to Brisbane for the G20 summit (a political party?), with the most newsworthy aspect of her visit being her appearance at one of Brisbane's most popular pub strips on Friday night.

Friday night pub-goers who rubbed shoulder with the German leader took to social media to post selfies.

(#WorldLeaderSelfie: Photo: Sarah Keayes/Twitter)

The ABC reported that a craft beer bar played the 1980s German pop song “99 Luftballons” in Merkel's honour as she left.

Twitter confirmed the report:

Prost!