The Trump administration made a big mistake by not participating in the Johannesburg G20 summit. Having declared several months back that he would not be attending, President Donald Trump should have stuck with his initial intention of sending Vice President JD Vance.
America’s boycott was a personal snub to South African president and host Cyril Ramaphosa, and an insult to dozens of African leaders justifiably proud that this was the first such high-level meeting held on African soil.
President Trump was not the only leader missing in action. China’s Xi Jinping chose not to come, as did Russian president Vladimir Putin, for whom there is an international arrest warrant. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum stayed away. as did leaders from Argentina, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, all of whom sent deputies. In all, one-third of the Group of 20 countries were not represented by their leaders.
This collection of important developed and emerging market economies operates as a club, whose first gathering was hastily convened as an emergency response in Washington, DC in 2008.
President Trump, as principal member of his own Mar-a-Lago club, is aware that a first club rule is not insulting another member. His ill-mannered conduct this year could have repercussions when he hosts the next G20 meeting in 2026.
Ironically, perhaps, the Group of 20 is largely an American concoction. After the New York finance house Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 and there were fears of global panic, then French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the head of the European Union hurried to Washington to urge then-president George W. Bush to bring together the existing Group of Seven/Eight participants plus India, China and Brazil to deal with the crisis.
Not wanting to be stampeded, Bush and his economic team moved cautiously but with speed, creating a broader forum, and elevating a grouping of 20 finance officials to the leaders’ level. The new Group of 20 included the three biggest Latin American economies: Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, the rising Asian powers: China, India, South Korea, and Indonesia, plus Turkey, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Stimulus programme
The first few G20 summits were successful, particularly the 2009 meeting in London that devised a coordinated stimulus programme that pulled the global economy back from the threat of depression. But how, asked critics, would the G20 do when there wasn’t a crisis?
The answer was: not very well. Agendas proliferated, declarations got longer, meetings became less substantive and more gaudy, designed for media consumption. Summits evolved into grand arrivals with red carpets and military honours. Instead of being thoughtful interactions, the summits became more ceremonial. John Kirton, the peripatetic Canadian dissector of summits, observed that leaders typically spent more time in the sky travelling than talking to one another.
Johannesburg, regrettably, was a perfect example. Its 30-page, 122-point declaration is without significance and will neither be read nor studied by many. The leaders theoretically met for eleven hours over two days, but often there were empty chairs. Interventions were formal, with little give and take. The plenary hall was oversized, configured to accommodate over 100 officials. It wasn’t a meeting of 20 leaders, rather it was an extravagant forum to meet and greet.
Centre of gravity shifting
Lamenting the breakdown of global consensus and President Trump’s disruptive tariffs, French President Emmanuel Macron said, “The G20 may be coming to the end of a cycle.” German chancellor Friedrich Merz said the world was reorganizing itself. Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said the world was rupturing, its centre of gravity shifting.
The G20 is worth saving. In a rapidly changing world, it is important that diverse leaders meet and get to know one another.
The recipe for reform is simple: dispense with the trappings of aggrandisement and glory, sharply scale back the number of ex-officio participants, do away with declarations on disparate matters, tighten the agenda to three topics, and behave as a club where all members are welcomed and included.
* Barry D. Wood has reported from more than twenty G7, G8, and G20 summits.
[Image: David Watkis on Unsplash]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
If you like what you have just read, support the Daily Friend