Paris attacks propel fight against terrorism to top of G20 agenda

President Barack Obama says the United States would stick to its current strategy in the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, again ruling out putting US troops on the ground in a fighting capacity, Reuters reports.

"There will be an intensification of the strategy that we put forward but the strategy they we put forward is the strategy that ultimately is going to work," Obama told reporters at a news conference at the close of a Group of 20 summit.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says attacks in Paris claimed by Islamic State which killed 129 people were a strike against French values rather than actions.

"They (Islamic State) are not hitting us for what we are doing, but for what we are," Fabius told a news conference.

President Vladimir Putin says he’s shared Russian intelligence data on Islamic State financing with his G20 colleagues: the terrorists appear to be financed from 40 countries, including some G20 member states.

Turkish President Racep Tayyip Erdogan says migrant issues and terrorism should not be conflated, and that linking the two is an effort to avoid humanitarian responsibility. 

Attitudes towards Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his country’s actions particularly in Syria have changed at the current G20 summit, with “more attention being paid to what he is saying and what he has been advocating,” political commentator John Wight told RT.

“From the pictures of the discussions that we’ve seen taking place at the G20 between Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama, from the body language alone we can see that there has been a change in the level of engagement... Now Putin is being listened to, whereas in the past – as we know from the G20 summit in Brisbane – he was treated as a pariah,” Wight said.

“Putin and his stance hasn't changed one inch,” he added, saying that it’s the “enormity of the events” that have shown western policy was wrong, with Islamic State bringing “its war against civilization beyond Syria and Iraq to engulf Europe and the entire world.”

“Despite the propaganda that has been deployed to demonize Russia... the public can see that the only actors to have clarity when it comes to their engagement in this conflict are Russia, the Syrian government, the Lebanese resistance organization Hezbollah and the Iranian government,” the British commentator told RT.

A bilateral meeting between President Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the G20 summit has begun. The agenda of the meeting is unknown, as following the formal handshake, the media was asked to leave.

Vladimir Putin proposed to hold a bilateral meeting with Angela Merkel, following the working dinner of the G20 leaders. “We’ve already worked hard today, but surely there are more questions worth addressing in bilateral format,” the Russian President said, with German Chancellor agreeing that G20 provides a good opportunity for such talks.

The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, has proposed 10 steps to battle terrorism at the G20 summit in Turkey, which include cutting off terrorist funds and an information campaign. 

The French Air Force has carried out strikes against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters in Northern Syria. Ten fighter jets dropped 20 bombs over the IS held city of Raqqa. According to the Defense Ministry, the strikes destroyed a command and control center, munitions depot, as well as a training camp and jihadi recruitment center.

READ MORE: French jets bomb ISIS command center, other targets in Raqqa