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Yearender 2022: War complicates but elevates importance of Indonesia’s G20
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Leaders’ session: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (right) speaks as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center) and United States President Joe Biden (left) listen during the second session of the Group of 20 Leaders’ Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Nov. 15. (Antara/Media Center G20 Indonesia/Aditya Pradana Putra)
Policymakers had hoped for 2022 to spur recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, but geopolitical battles turned it into another year of economic crisis, sending ripples through Indonesia’s Group of 20 agenda.
In December 2021, the government had decided on three main agenda points for its presidency of the forum to be discussed in the summit a little less than a year later: global health architecture, energy transition and digital economy.
“It is an opportunity for Indonesia to contribute more to the global economic recovery,” President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said in a speech in December last year, “[and] to build [...] a world order based on freedom, eternal peace and social justice.”
A little less than three months later, Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine that prompted a swift and harsh response from the United States and its allies, including military assistance for Kiev and economic sanctions for Moscow.
As a result, multiple international institutions have reduced their economic growth forecasts for this year and next year, because supply chain disruptions and an energy shortage stoked inflation, prompting central banks to quickly raise interest rates.
Read also: G20: Hope and deliverables
Efforts by Western countries to isolate the Russian mission within the G20 complicated Jakarta’s chairmanship in a forum that relies heavily on consensus.
