Yunus Turhan prepared for AA Analytics an analysis of the results of the G20 leaders’ summit, which took place on November 22-23 in Johannesburg.
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Created after the 1998 financial crisis in Asia, the Group of 20 met in an African country for the first time in its history. The Group of 20 summits, bringing together the world’s most important industrialized economies, began their activities by discussing macroeconomic issues. Participation in the summit in 2007 was raised to the level of heads of state. Following this step, the topics covered at the summits were expanded to cover all issues affecting the global system both internally and externally, such as health, agriculture, climate change, and sustainable development. This expansion in scope makes sense given the global weight of the G20. After all, G20 countries represent approximately 85% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), more than 75% of global trade and approximately two-thirds of the world’s population. Decisions and policies adopted by the G20, although not binding, can affect the macroeconomic balance and global human and social structures.
G20 Leaders’ Summit in the Shadow of the US, Russia and China
The Republic of South Africa, which hosted the G20 summit with the participation of representatives of 42 countries and international organizations, took on a symbolic and strategic task both in terms of the future of the continent it represents and in terms of reaffirming the growing role of the Global South in the multilateral system. However, US President Donald Trump boycotted the summit, calling land reform in South Africa “discrimination against white people”, which overshadowed the content and significance of the summit. The move by the United States, one of the founding countries of the G20, damaged the dynamics of collective decision-making, but some say it opened up opportunities for closer cooperation among participating states.
In fact, Trump is not the only leader who did not attend the summit. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and US President Trump’s ideological ally, Argentine President Javier Milley, also did not attend the summit, but these countries sent high-level technical and political delegations to the summit in an effort to keep the channels of diplomacy open.
The US, which will take over the presidency after South Africa, announced at the last minute that it planned to send a representative from its embassy in South Africa to to participate in the G20 handover ceremony, but South African President Cyril Ramaphosa refused, saying the handover to an embassy official was an insult to him, raising doubts about the G20’s institutional stability in an international environment in which multilateralism has become increasingly challenging.