Some wins for multilateralism at the G20 — and big questions about its long-term future
CBC
Leaders at this year’s G20 summit in South Africa sounded the alarm that the group’s relevance and effectiveness were at grave risk in the face of escalating geopolitical conflicts and a world order that is dramatically shifting.
Founded in the late 1990s in part by former prime minister Paul Martin, the Group of 20 has met every year since 2008 with a focus on international economic and financial stability.
It’s supposed to be the pinnacle of multilateralism: the idea that nations can co-operate, compromise and co-ordinate for the greater good.
But a lot has changed in the past two decades.
“We are struggling to resolve major crises together around this table,” said French President Emmanuel Macron at the opening of the summit, adding that “the G20 may be coming to the end of a cycle.”
At the heart of this “rupture” in the global world order, to borrow Prime Minister Mark Carney’s description, is the United States and President Donald Trump.
Trump’s tariff war on most of the world, combined with his transactional approach to geopolitical conflicts like the war in Ukraine, had G20 members focusing more on how to find economic security than integration.
Even a massive economy like China, a country itself often accused of destabilizing the world’s security, voiced its concerns over for the future.
“Unilateralism and protectionism are rampant,” said Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who was at the G20 in place of President Xi Jinping.
“Many people are pondering what exactly is happening to global solidarity.”
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, invited to the G20 for the first time, said he was also worried about the fate of multilateralism.
“It's more about deals and therefore it's more prone to conflict,’ Stubb said in his opening remarks.
Trump’s total boycott — no American official was sent in his place — may have some questioning wider global unity. But it did bolster solidarity among those who remained at the table.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand pointed to the adoption of a consensus declaration at the very start of the summit.
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