What’s a G20 anyway?

It’s THAT time of the year again when leaders from the world’s 20 biggest economies gather for a family photo… This year, under Turkey’s presidency, they’re meeting in Antalya…But WHY meet? And what do they talk about?

The Group of 20 is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 19 countries plus the European Union. In 2009 the G20 replaced the G8 as the main economic council. Because the balance of world economy has been clearly changing. In terms of GDP, members of the G8 dominated half of the world economy. But today, China has the second largest economy, while India’s GDP is now bigger than Canada’s…

Cemil Ertem is a chief economic adviser to the Turkish president. He says developing countries now have a say at this summit...

The G20 is an informal forum and so it doesn’t have a permanent office. The presidency rotates every year, to ensure regional balance. The president brings together an agenda. It’s supported by a group called the ‘troika’, made up of the previous, present and next host countries. Actually, the communique of the summit is decided ahead of the final gathering during pre-summit negotiations. These are held by sherpas[1]. Not the ones in the Himalayas, but the personal representatives of the leaders, who do the diplomatic ‘heavy lifting’…

What are the topics this year?
For the first time in its history, the G20’s ECONOMIC agenda takes a backseat to political issues… Let’s face it, there are certain global problems that need to be addressed NOW… Like the deepening refugee crisis, issues of global terrorism and the war in Syria…So the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has suggested they handle these problems during the working dinner on the summit’s first day… But global economic growth and jobs will still be talked about…

Erdogan says the primary goal of the G20 under Turkey’s presidency is to boost global growth: “Our primary objective will be revivingglobal economic growth and enhancinga balanced and sustainable growth trend."

Russia will get a lot of attention at this year’s summit. It’s a close ally of Syria, and is currently launching air strikes against areas held by DAESH[2] in Syria… When Russia annexed Crimea, in Ukraine, it was suspended from the G8, but not expelled. So it’ll still take part in this year’s gathering…

Is it worth the fuss?
But some people criticise the summit as a “million dollar waste of time”... The two-day meeting costs a lot of money and requires the highest level of security… In Antalya this year, there will be more police officers than delegates and journalists…It’s estimated that last year Australia spent around $500 million on its two day summit. That included $186.000 for the meeting table, and $68.000 for the leaders’ chairs… The enormous costs for the summit has led to G20’s history of protests and criticism…

But Cemil Ertem says it’s wrong to narrow down the benefits of the summit to only two days: "The G20 summit is the final of a year long events and efforts. Therefore it’s a wrong perception to think that the amount of money spent on the G20 summit is limited to only two days"

Another knock against the G20 is the underrepresentation of some countries, such as the African nations… They’re represented by the African Union as a permanent guest each year, but they have little or no voice… Also, non-European Union members like Norway are also not represented. Back in 2010, Norway’s former foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre criticized the group for being “self appointed”. But in the end, it’s still a nice opportunity for leaders to get their pictures taken…

[1] Шерпа A sherpa[1] is the personal representative of a head of state or government who prepares an international summit, particularly the annual G8 Summit. Between the G8 summits there are multiple sherpa conferences where possible agreements are laid out. This reduces the amount of time and resources required at the negotiations of the heads of state at the final summit. The name sherpa—without further context—refers to sherpas for the G8 summit but the designation can be spread for different regular conferences where the participation of the respective head of state is required. The sherpa is generally quite influential, although they generally lack the authority to independently make the final decision about any given agreement.

The name is derived from the Sherpa people, a Nepalese ethnic group, who serve as guides and porters in the Himalayas, a reference to the fact that the sherpa clears the way for a head of state at a major summit. The name was originally of informal usage in between the states of the European Union where personal representatives prepare work for the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) meetings.

[2] The acronym is basically just the Arabic version of "ISIL", based on the Arabic name ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fīl-ʿIrāq wash-Shām. Its use is considered pejorative because it sounds similar to the Arabic words دائس (Daes) and داهس (dahes), both describing someone who "tramples" upon others i.e. an oppressor. Since the romanization of Arabic is typically based on pronunciation rather than spelling, some confusion may arise from several letters of the English acronym not matching any initial letters.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 933