The closest any world leader will get to Barack Obama this weekend is if they meet Madeleine Albright and Jim Leach – the two Obama transition “surrogates” who have been deputed to stand in for the president-elect during the G20 summit.

Neither the former secretary of state nor the former Republican congressman is particularly close to Mr Obama. But that is partly the point. Since his election 11 days ago, the president-elect has repeatedly stated that there is “only one president at a time”. Although his transition team is based in Washington, Mr Obama has spent almost all his time since the election at home in Chicago.