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G20: Hope and deliverables
Judging the two-day Group of 20 Leaders’ Summit mainly from the contents of their declaration we may misunderstand the dynamics, potential and limitations of the multilateral forum.
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Meeting in session: Delegations listen as President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo speaks during the Group of 20 Leaders' Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali on Nov. 15.
(AFP/Dita Alangkara)
Many who expected that the Group of 20, as an intergovernmental, premium forum for international economic cooperation, would change the prospects of the gloomy outlook of the global economy and would announce many concrete and collective programs of action to address the global food and energy insecurity, the problems of high inflation and rising interest rates, may be disappointed.
But judging the two-day G20 Leaders’ Summit mainly from the contents of their declaration we may misunderstand the dynamics, potential and limitations of the multilateral forum, in view of the complexity of the geopolitical tensions after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union-Russia and United States-China tense relations, abrupt economic slowdown and climate disasters, which have overshadowed the world since March.
The tasks of the Indonesian presidency of the G20 this year should have been the most challenging of all previous leaders’ meetings.
Nevertheless, similar to the G20 Rome Leaders’ Declaration in October 2021, almost 50 percent of the 52 points of the 16-page G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration still addresses the ongoing problems in the economy and such sectors as fair, multilateral trade, energy and food security, financial structure and stability, international taxation and investment, digital economy, debt restructuring etc. All the policy recommendations are aimed to support the theme “Recover Together, Recover Stronger,” which Indonesia assigned to its presidency this year.
The leaders also reaffirm their commitment to stay agile and flexible in their macro-economic policy responses and cooperation, make public investments and structural reforms, promote private investments and strengthen multilateral trade and resilience of global supply chains to support long-term growth and sustainable, inclusive, green and just transitions. They will also work to ensure long-term fiscal sustainability, with our central banks committed to achieving price stability.
The heads of state also stress their commitment to protecting macroeconomic and financial stability and remain committed to using all available tools to mitigate downside risks, noting the steps taken since the global financial crisis, to strengthen financial resilience and promote sustainable finance and capital flows.
Encouraging, too, is that the G20's Common Framework for debt treatment is finally beginning to deliver agreements with several most vulnerable countries.
But the summit should also be assessed from the series of policy discussions conducted over the past 10 months by the 12 working groups, 10 engagement groups, finance ministers and central bank chiefs under the G20 umbrella. The reports of those meetings were attached to the leaders’ declaration.
Yet, no less important were the bilateral meetings of the leaders taking place on the sidelines of the summit as those between the US and China and the exchanges of views among the thousands of business leaders from across the world.
As the summit coincided with the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt, the gathering also witnessed a very important climate-change mitigation deal.
The EU and leaders of the International Partners Group, co-led by the US and Japan and President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo launched on Tuesday a Just Energy Transition Partnership, which will raise about US$20 billion in government and private financing for Indonesia to enable the country to early retire its coal-fired plants.
