Summit Without Putin or Xi
“G20 was created as a concert system that incorporates the world’s leading powers so they can work together to resolve the biggest problems facing the globe. The absence of the top leaders of China and Russia pokes a hole in the G20 mechanism. The Ukraine war and many global issues ranging from climate to development need the cooperation of the world’s leading powers. As such, Xi and Putin’s absence will reduce the significance of this summit even though their representatives will be there,” he told Sputnik.
Who Created the G20?
Clash of Civilizations?
“A rather distorted forum, not representing the true picture of the industrialized economies of the world, still heavily weighted to Western hegemonic habits and attitudes, which summed up rather well in the statement by Joseph Borrell, the EU foreign minister. The EU being a member of the G7 to the effect that Europe is a garden and the rest of the world is a jungle. And Mr. Lavrov has had some rather sarcastic things to say about that, rightly so. But it reflects that sort of Anglo-American and European attitude of superiority to the rest of the world. Therefore, Mr. Modi, the prime minister of India, is going to face quite a challenge this weekend in trying to make something useful and successful out of this,” Kevin told Sputnik, commenting on the misunderstandings between Western and non-Western countries of the G20.
“The West is trying to use the G20 in a way that it was not intended to be used. The G20 is essentially a global economic cooperation forum. It is not a forum for striking political attitudes and issuing condemnations of particular countries' conduct in particular areas. It is not about politics, and this should have been made very clear at the G20 last year in Indonesia, when the Ukraine war was already in process, and the Americans tried to use it to make an anti-Russian statement to talk about Russia's unprovoked aggression. This led to a very bad-tempered and unsatisfactory outcome to the meeting. And I think it is going to happen again because the Americans don't learn from experience.”
“I think there's a very good chance that there won't be an agreed final statement, because I'm sure that the Chinese state, the representative, the prime minister of China, and Mr. Lavrov, the senior Russian representative, will not accept an anti-Russian or anti-Chinese final statement. It will have to be wound back. This will test Indian diplomacy to the utmost. And it may be possible, as in Indonesia last year, that there won't be a final joint statement. In Indonesia, there was not even a final traditional group photograph. The atmosphere became so bad at the end. So I don't have great expectations for this meeting," he added.
Decline of the Old International Relations System
“The significance of the G20 has steadily declined after its initial success during the 2008-09 global financial crisis. The return of geopolitics and great power rivalry in the next decade weakened the foundation of the G20, which preaches cooperation rather than conflict and competition. In recent years, the growing divide between the US and the West on the one hand and non-Western rising powers on the other has ushered in a new era of international politics that centers on conflict and competition. The G20, which symbolizes global governance, is becoming increasingly irrelevant.”
The G20's Replacement
“The West undermines the institutions of global governance more and more every year. Therefore, those wishing to join the BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and other groups where the West is not represented are growing,” he said.
“It is really up to the G20 whether it develops. To redefine and relocate the disciplines that make it a useful forum. International cooperation can only work according to agreed protocols, integrate rules, and if the people involved in a particular forum don't all follow those rules, it makes it very difficult for everybody. The BRICS meeting was extremely successful. Shanghai Cooperation Organization is extremely successful. East Asia summits are extremely successful. This is because these organizations follow their protocols, follow the rules, and G20 needs to do the same,” the Australian ambassador summed up.