Maybe it was the jacaranda trees and their violet blossoms that took the edge off. Or the evening at the 19th-century Colón opera house. But world leaders attending the G20 summit in Buenos Aires tried hard to mask the sweeping divisions rocking the multilateral order that had been laid bare in previous similar gatherings.

The meeting ended with a trade truce reached by US president Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping over sirloin steak and caramel pancakes on Saturday night — a scenario that would have been hard to fathom just a few weeks ago.

Throughout the summit, heads of government sought to paper over their differences, agreeing to a joint statement that showed there was still a slim path for global co-operation. America’s traditional allies caved in to some demands made by the Trump administration: they omitted for the first time a pledge to fight protectionism and agreed to an overhaul of the WTO, cementing a shift from resistance to adaptation after nearly two years of dealing with the occupant of the White House.