War in Ukraine expected to block consensus at G20 as Trudeau visits Asia

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is headed to two international summits this week to push for expanded trade and closer ties with parts of Asia — goals that are likely to be overshadowed by Russia's war on Ukraine.

Trudeau and International Trade Minister Mary Ng are attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Jakarta, Indonesia from September 5 to 6. They'll be in New Delhi, India from from September 9 to 10 for the G20 summit, with a stopover in Singapore from September 7 to 8 to chase new foreign investment.

Most international summits end with a joint communique outlining objectives and measures agreed upon by all member countries. Last year's G20, hosted by Indonesia, was able to reach consensus on a number of global issues and even included language on Ukraine.

With the G20 assembly still split over the war in Ukraine and other burning issues, such as climate change, experts don't hold out a lot of hope for a similar outcome this year.

"Getting a joint statement this year at the G20 will be even harder than last time," said one senior government official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.

Paul Samson, president of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), said he also doubts the G20 can agree on a communique this time.

Samson, who has co-chaired a G20 working group on the global economy for many years, pointed to ministerial summits in recent months that ended with so-called "outcome documents" and summaries outlining each government's positions on various issues.

"It's unfortunate because … you lose the multilateral reform [on issues] such as climate change," he said. "Those kinds of things where there could have been an agreement between all parties, that gets pushed aside because of the disagreement on those other areas."

This is the first G20 since a recent move spearheaded by China to expand the BRICS — a group made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that sees itself as a counterweight to the G7 within the G20. Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to join.

While a consensus outcome at the G20 appears unlikely, Canada hopes to make progress at the ASEAN summit toward completing a trade agreement with Indonesia and the region as a whole.

"We are aware of the criticism of Canada as a sometimes friend that sometimes shows up and then disappears," said the senior government official. "Not anymore."

The official said that since Canada is now officially a strategic partner of ASEAN, "we will be back every year."

Canada's priority going into the ASEAN summit is to make sure Southeast Asia's leaders see this country as a prime candidate for trade relationships, government officials said. At least one Canadian minister has joked that international leaders don't wake up thinking of Canada.

"That may be nowhere more true than it is in Southeast Asia, which is very far from Canada geographically," said Jeff Nankivell, president and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.