G20 - what kind of organization is it, what goals and objectives does it fulfill?

Content:

• What is G20
• History of the G20
• G20 Members
• G20 structure
• Goals and objectives of the G20
• RUSSIA in the G20
• G20 summits
• Achievements, assessments and prospects of the G20 forum

What is G20

The Group of Twenty ( G20 ) is an informal forum of the world's leading developed and developing economies, created in 1999. it serves as one of the main platforms for discussing macroeconomic policy, financial regulation and other economic issues. It closely cooperates with the Bretton Woods institutions - the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The G20 includes 19 states and two regional associations. G20 members account for about 85% of global GDP and 75% of world trade, and are home to almost two-thirds of the world's population.

History of the G20

The G20 was established with a leading role played by the G7 countries (G8 in 1998–2014), which faced the need to create a more representative platform for discussing macroeconomic policy, taking into account the growing economic potential of developing countries – Brazil, India, CHINA , Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa and others.

The G20 traces its history back to April 1998, when, at the initiative of the United States, finance ministers and central bank governors from 22 countries with “systemically important economies” gathered in Washington to discuss ways out of the Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998. Working groups were created to study its causes and develop proposals for overcoming it. The event was conceived as a one-time emergency meeting, but six months later, in October, the G22 met again – at the autumn meeting of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ). Four more countries joined these meetings.

In March and April 1999, two meetings were convened at the initiative of the G7, with the participation of 33 countries. The format of the 1998–1999 meetings, which involved a free exchange of views at seminars with the participation of observers from international organizations and private business, was considered productive by the participants, so in December of that year, at a meeting in Berlin, the finance ministers agreed to continue the meetings on an annual basis.

In 2005, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin first proposed increasing representation at the meetings. The first G20 summit at the highest level was held in November 2008 in Washington, D.C., at the height of the global economic crisis. The following two years, they were held twice a year: in 2009, in London ( United Kingdom ) and Pittsburgh (United States), and in 2010, in Toronto ( CANADA ) and Seoul (Republic of Korea ).

After the Paris summit in 2011, the leaders began to meet only once a year, and the hosting of the summit was now entrusted to the country chairing the association.

Members of the G20

Country GDP in 2023 at current prices (US$) Source: World Bank Share of world GDP Other international organizations Australia 1.72 trillion 1.63% APEC, EAS, MICTA, OECD, Commonwealth, TPP, Pacific Islands Forum, AUKUS Argentina 640.6 billion 0.61% OAS, MERCOSUR, PROSUR, CELAC Brazil 2.17 trillion 2.06% OAS, MERCOSUR, BRICS United Kingdom 3.34 trillion 3.17% NATO, OSCE, OECD, Council of Europe, Commonwealth, G7, AUKUS Germany 4.46 trillion 4.23% EU , NATO, OSCE, OECD, Council of Europe, G7 India 3.55 trillion 3.37% BRICS, East Asia Summit, Commonwealth, SCO Indonesia 1.37 trillion 1.3% ASEAN, MIKTA, OIC Italy 2.25 trillion 2.14% EU, Council of Europe, NATO, G7, OECD, OSCE Canada 2.14 trillion 2% APEC, NATO, OAS, OSCE, OECD, Commonwealth, G7, USMCA China 17.79 trillion 16.9% ASEAN+3, APEC, BRICS, SCO Mexico 1.79 trillion 1.7% APEC, MIKTA, OAS, OECD, CELAC, USMCA Republic of Korea 1.71 trillion 1.6% APEC, ASEAN+3, East Asia Summit, MIKTA, OECD Russia 2.02 trillion 1.9% APEC, BRICS, East Asia Summit, CSTO, CIS, SCO Saudi Arabia 1.07 trillion 1.01% LAS, OIC, OPEC usa 27.36 trillion 25.95% APEC, East Asia Summit, NATO, OAS, OSCE, OECD, AUKUS, USMCA Turkey 1.11 trillion 1.05% MIKTA, NATO, OSCE, OIC, OECD, JTG, Council of Europe France 3.03 trillion 2.87% EU, NATO, OSCE, OECD, Council of Europe South Africa 377.78 million 0.36% African Union, SADC, BRICS Japan 4.21 trillion 4.0% ASEAN+3, APEC, East Asia Summit, OECD, G7

The group also includes regional associations as participants:

• African Union (since 2023), uniting 55 African countries;
• European Union (unites 27 European countries).

The President of the World Bank, the Managing DIRECTOR of the IMF, and the Chairmen of the International Monetary and Financial Committee and the Development Committee of the IMF are also permanent members of the meetings.

Since the regions of the world are not represented in a balanced way, the practice of inviting representatives of economically important countries that are not members of the G20 has developed. Although not formally a member of the club, Spain is a regular guest at the meetings, and the Netherlands is often invited.

In 2024 , the guest countries of the G20 working meetings will be Angola, Egypt , Spain, Nigeria, Norway, the UAE, Portugal, and Singapore.

G20 structure

The group has no permanent bodies, budget or regulated membership. The country chairing the group is responsible for holding events, and is elected for one year on a rotating basis (for this purpose, all countries are grouped into five groups). Since January 2002, the current chair, the previous chair and the future chair form a "troika". This ensures continuity in the group's work.

In 2024, the three, along with the current chair Brazil, will include India (chaired in 2023) and South Africa (chaired in 2025).

The group holds over 100 meetings annually, the main one being the summit (from the English peak, top) - a high-level event with the participation of heads of state or government. The main events and meetings are hosted by the chairing country, which also sets the group's agenda.

At the end of each summit, a communiqué is adopted  - an agreed statement by the participating countries on the issues discussed at the meetings.

There are also other events that are traditionally grouped into two thematic areas, or tracks (from English - path, trail, trace):

• Sherpa track - personal representatives of the heads of state and government of the participating countries; includes 15 workers (on agriculture, anti-corruption, tourism, etc.), two target groups and one initiative group (on bioeconomy);
• the financial track, which brings together G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, who meet at least four times a year, including during the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF; the track has three task forces and seven technical groups (on sustainable finance, international taxation, infrastructure, financial inclusion, etc.).

There are also interaction groups that bring together representatives of business (B20), civil society (C20), labor (L20), women (W20), youth (Y20), think tanks (T20) and science (S20).

Goals and objectives of the G20

The main goal of the G20 is to coordinate actions to maintain sustainable economic growth and stability of the global monetary and financial architecture, as well as reform international financial and economic organizations, primarily the World Bank and the IMF.

In 2009, the Pittsburgh Summit adopted the Framework Agreement on Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth, which formed the basis for all subsequent initiatives within the financial track. The main principles and priorities of the agreement included:

• responsible budgetary and fiscal policy;
• regulation of the global financial infrastructure;
• elimination of imbalances in current account transactions;
• support for open trade and investment policies, fight against protectionism;
• maintaining price stability and market exchange rates;
• support for structural reforms aimed at stimulating economic growth;
• sustainable development and poverty reduction.

According to researchers, the implementation of this agreement accounted for 54% of the Antalya, 69% of the Hangzhou and 42% of the Hamburg Action Plans adopted by the G20 in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Since the 2001 ministerial meetings in Canada, the agenda has included topics such as energy transition, climate change, anti-corruption, HEALTH, sustainable development, and agriculture .

Russia in the G20

Russia has been a permanent member of the G20 since its inception, chairing the group in 2013 and hosting G20 events.

Russia's relations with some G20 members have worsened since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine , and the United States has repeatedly called for Russia to be excluded from the G20. EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said that excluding the country from the association would be contrary to the principle of multilateralism. President Vladimir Putin refused to participate in the Bali summit (2022), whose final declaration expressed "deepest regret over the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine," and participants demanded "the complete and unconditional withdrawal of armed forces from the territory of Ukraine." The communiqué for the next summit in 2023 in India no longer contained a direct condemnation of Russia's actions.

G20 summits

A total of 18 summits have been held since 2008. The last one was held on September 9–10, 2023 in New Delhi, India. Its theme was “One Earth, One Family, One Future,” and climate change and green energy were among the key issues. In particular, India, with the participation of the United States and Brazil, announced the creation of a Global Biofuels Alliance.

One of its important achievements was the acceptance of the African Union as the second permanent collective member after the European Union (until 2023, only one African country, South Africa, participated in the G20). At the summit, the leaders of India, the United States, Saudi Arabia and the European Union announced the creation of a new economic corridor, India-Middle East  -Europe. It is planned to strengthen the transport links between India, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Israel and the EU.

Brazil holds the presidency from 1 December 2023 to 30 November 2024, and will host the group's summit in Rio de Janeiro on 18–19 November 2024, with other events taking place in 15 cities in five states of the country.

The theme of the 2024 summit is “Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet.” It is planned to launch the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty and the Global Mobilization to Combat Climate Change.

Achievements, assessments and prospects of the G20 forum

In 2008–2009, the group members managed to agree on a financial package worth about $5 trillion to support the stability of the global financial system. In 2012, the G20, together with the OECD, developed the BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) system — an action plan to combat base erosion and profit shifting. More than 145 countries and jurisdictions became its participants.

Some critics believe that the G20, intended as a crisis response group, has failed to replicate the success of its coordinated response during the 2008–09 crisis. In particular, the Brisbane Five-Year Action Plan adopted in 2014, which envisaged a 2.1 percentage point acceleration in growth, has been only partially implemented. Overall, the level of implementation of the G20 commitments has been unsustainable, with one estimate suggesting that only 54% of the more than 3,000 commitments made since 2008 have been fully implemented.

The G20's role has grown during the covid-19 pandemic , with the group agreeing on a fiscal stimulus package worth around $15 trillion to help struggling households and businesses, a debt standstill for the poorest countries, and a $650 billion IMF special drawing rights issue.

In 2021, the G20 agreed to introduce a minimum corporate tax that would prevent large companies from avoiding expenses by moving production to low-tax countries. This initiative was joined by 130 countries.

As of 2024, thanks to its expanded membership, the G20 is the most representative informal platform for discussing global economic and political issues; on the sidelines of the summit, leaders of countries have the opportunity to hold bilateral consultations and resolve accumulated disagreements. For example, at the 2019 summit in Osaka, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to resume negotiations on settling trade disputes.

In recent years, the summits have been complicated by political conflicts between participating countries. In particular, at the 2023 summit, Saudi Arabia and China boycotted tourism meetings scheduled to take place in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (its ownership is disputed by Pakistan), and the adoption of a joint final declaration on Ukraine led to disagreements over the positions of Moscow and Beijing. In March 2024, the finance ministers and central bankers of the G20 countries failed to agree on a final statement due to disagreements over the conflicts in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip; instead, Brazil issued its own communiqué.

Another challenge for the G20 is the rise of protectionism and fragmentation of the global economy. In particular, in March 2017, for the first time since 2008, the final communiqué did not include a commitment to free trade principles.