The possibilities of G20 transformation into political forum

The G20 is an economic forum that was established in 1999 as a result of the Asian financial crisis 1997–1998. Its initial goal was to prevent large-scale economical and financial crisis. However, when another crisis happened in 2008, its consequence was the raising the meeting level of G20 up to summit.

Key worlds: the G20, UN, Security Council, a political forum.

At the moment the main aims of G20 are still the solution of economic issues such as reforming world economic and financial architecture, including the change of quota allocation between countries in the IMF and the World Bank, increasing engagement of developing countries to the development of solutions of world issues, fighting with the protectionist policy and so on.

However, now the G20 more often affects such issues that connected with economy indirectly. For instance, forum pays its attention to ecological and social problems more and more often. In Pittsburg declaration on ecological issues, concerning the use of ineffective types of fuel and climate changes was under consideration [7]. During the Russian Presidency in 2013 the G20 considered the gender inequality issues and the role of enhancement of women in economic sphere [9]. In 2017 great attention was paid to fighting with slavery and child labor [5]. In 2021 healthcare issue was at the most important on agenda due to the situation with COVID pandemic [8].

Consequently, we have a question: will political topics be raised in the future and can the G20 transform into the political forum or even world government due to this, as some scientists suppose?

To tell the truth, the G20 has already started to consider several political issues gradually. Such topics as fighting with terrorism and drug trafficking, the growth of refugees and the migration of population, maintenance of information security have already been consideration. In 2017 under the German Presidency the first meeting of foreign ministers took place and the main goal was to discuss acute political crisis. It was declared: «we discussed the situation in Afghanistan, situation in Ukraine…confirmed availability of common, matching interests, firstly, in the area that is regarded irreconcilable struggle with terrorism» [2]. Also the emergency summit on Afghanistan was held in 2021, as the result, countries pointed out the necessity of humanitarian aid, importance to form an inclusive Afghan government and also noticed that they wait for the assistance in post-conflict economic reconstruction of Afghanistan from those countries whose termination of membership had caused such a crisis [1].

It shows that in scape of G20 it is possible to discuss political issues and reach agreement on these matters. The inclusion of political topics in the G20 agenda can be explained by the growing coordination capacity of the G20 and influential enhancement of political problems in the world economy [3]. Also the format of G20 is quite convenient. The leaders of various countries conclude not only multilateral talks but also bilateral meetings, it allows not to waste time to organize official visits for negotiating sharp problems between these countries. Based on this, some politicians consider the G20 not just an economic forum with the great potential but the replacement of the United Nations. They justify it by saying that the UN has become obsolete and is not able to cope with the world challenges [10]. Others foretell this forum a role as a new Security Council rather than the replacement of the UN: «The UN Security Council suffers from the vice, which cannot be cured: it is not representative enough and it reflects alignment of world forces as it was 70 years ago» [6]. It is quite unlikely that there will be the reformation of the Council. There are different countries represented from all over the world in the G20 and the dialog is based on equality and equity: «There is no dictatorship in the G20. There are various views and everyone is equal not according to the charter but by fact» [6].

Nevertheless, it is hardly possible that the G20 will be transformed into world government in the near future. After all, it is only the forum whose decisions have purely advisory character rather than mandatory and it requires support of such organizations as the UN, IMF, World Bank and WTO. What is more, first of all, the G20 has been created as an economic forum and its core goal is still to solve economic and financial problems. At the same time political issues have not yet been allocated to separate permanent tracks. Even if the G20 plays a significant role in the world economy, it is hardly possible in the political field: «The G20 cannot be a world governance institute in all spheres» [4]. It is just a venue for negotiations where different countries can listen to different opinions about ways of solving the topical issues and also to discuss some sensitive issues in the bilateral format. But the G20 has been established not to make important political decisions. All decisions, countries have agreed to implement, are not of mandatory nature. Each country decides whether to implement the G20 decisions or not for itself.

To sum up, although the G20 has a significant capacity and touches upon a lot of activity areas some researchers foreshadow this forum a role of a new world organization, which can replace the UN. The G20 is still just a forum that potentially will be able to have crucial importance only concerning the economic and financial matters, but in case of political issues it will not become a world government, at least not in the near future.

References:

1. Брифинг официального представителя МИД России М. В. Захаровой «на полях» Третьего Евразийского женского форума, Санкт-Петербург, 14 октября 2021 года. Об итогах чрезвычайного саммита «Группы двадцати» по Афганистану с участием И. В. Моргулова. // Официальный сайт МИД России [Электронный ресурс]. URL: https://www.mid.ru/web/guest/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/4903870#8 (дата обращения: 20.11.2021).
2. В Германии стартовала встреча министров иностранных дел «Большой двадцати» // Первый канал. 16.02.2017 // [Электронный ресурс]. URL: https://www.1tv.ru/news/2017–02–16/320048-v_germanii_startovala_vstrecha_ministrov_inostrannyh_del_bolshoy_dvadtsati (дата обращения: 23.11.2021).
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5. Коммюнике лидеров «Группы двадцати» по итогам саммита в Гамбурге (Германия) от 08.07.2017 года // Официальный сайт Президента Российской Федерации [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://www.kremlin.ru/search?query=Коммюнике+лидеров+«Группы+двадцати»+по+итогам+саммита+в+Гамбурге+(Германия) (дата обращения: 20.11.2021).
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