G20: Special Edition

The dawn  of the 21st century witnessed a prolific expansion of  global, regional and subregional organizations resulting in the creation of a particularly tight institutional architecture. With the end of the Cold War and the consequent easing of bipolar restrictions, the states  now enjoyed greater leverage in terms of alignment, facilitating what came to be referred to as “multi-multilateralism”.  In addition,  with the ascendance of the category of emerging powers, the segregation based on  North-South and East-West  appeared to be blurring, clearing the way for membership of  multiple multilateral organizations, simultaneously. The group of twenty countries (G20), thus,  is symbolic of the intricate international system wherein borders that were distinct in the 20th century have been made obscure.  While states continue to be critical actors in the new international order, the 21^st century is also characterized by both, a proliferation of and  heterogeneity among international actors as states vary in terms of  economic and military capacity, legitimacy, effectiveness and the role of public opinion within. The mushrooming of non-state actors   and their efficacy in the international arena as well as the pivotal role of civil society dialogue has added to the  democratization of the international system wherein the stage has been set for “network diplomacy”, both in the realm of policy and practice. The  G20 is said to exemplify “multi-multilateralism” and is widely regarded as an offshoot of “network diplomacy.”  The grouping is representative of the  heterogeneity and cultural plurality  of constituent states. Created as a forum for dialogue and coordination for primarily  dissipating economic crises,  the mandate continues to evolve and expand to encompass socio-economic issues in an increasingly interconnected  and mutually dependent world order. The G20 is not merely a reflection of the emerging new global order, it  can be said to constitute  the  site for review and analysis of novel  methods  and norms that underline international relations and diplomacy.  It can be considered as a platform that provides opportunity spaces to examine the ability  of dissimilar  actors with  differing interests to cooperate on specific issues.  While there remain apprehensions regarding the  actual decision-making capacity of the G20, its criticality lies in mirroring the socio-economic reality of the contemporary  global order. The G20 is not premised on a  constitutional treaty but is based on oral culture, it lacks in formal procedures, as such, much of its functioning is based on practice and precedence according it a degree of adaptability in keeping with the changing circumstances and  manoeuvrability in terms of decision making. The inclusion of new member states reinstates the representative character of the grouping, but it also brings with it  greater responsibilities, the possibility of engagements that reinforce divides and act as impediments to global governance.

As the G20 acquires a multifaceted character with an enhanced role in global diplomacy, Asia in Global Affairs by way of three writeups, focuses  on myriad aspects of the grouping in the wake of the Delhi G20 summit.

Asia in Global Affairs

21.9.2023

G20 : Face of the Emerging Global South

Political scientist Werner Levi had argued back in 1973 that the non-Western and non-Communist Third World countries are discontented with the small role they play in global affairs and resent the wealth procured by the rich developed world. In his article, Levi narrates that the poor and underdeveloped countries consider their minor role in international affairs as a limitation on their sovereign independence and hindrance to their economic development. They want to play greater role in the world affairs for many reasons including confirming their independent say in global affairs (‘strategic autonomy’?) and strengthening the countries economically through industrialization and diversification to sustain national independence. Levi, in his article, opined that the Third World states are jointly promoting the ‘poor South versus the rich North’ narrative to advance their individual aspirations. Indeed, the then Third World countries, with maximum resources and minimum technological knowhow, were the mere decision takers in the world affairs where the rich and powerful ‘northern states’ framed the global rules. The northern states are the rich European ex-colonisers who prospered exploiting the resources of their southern Afro-Asian colonies. Thus the crave among the poor southern states for ‘rightful place’ at the global stage of the 1970s was, more than for acquiring power, the reflection of their desire to be recognized as equal partner of their former ‘masters’ in deciding the fate of the international affairs. Levi concluded his article arguing that the major nations were not interested in these poor underdeveloped countries and put the blame on the countries for their poor conditions and opined that the Third World countries need to be self-reliant and self-improved in order to attract major and important nations. Cut to 2023, the induction of the African Union as the permanent member of the G20 under India’s presidency at its New Delhi summit and the differences over Ukraine episode at the global summits like G20 underline the fact that the ‘poor southern states’ finally got what they were craving for long. Besides, the very acknowledgement of the major world powers that G20 provides them with an opportunity to engage with world’s emerging economies satisfies Levi’s advice to the ‘Third World’ countries to qualify to attract important nations.

From Bretten Woods to G20

In 1944, in the midst of the world war, 735 delegates from 44 countries gathered at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretten Woods, New Hampshire, USA, to decide the fate of the international financial system. The gathering agreed on greater freedom of economic policy to prevent another 1930 like global financial crisis, fixed exchange rates, but most importantly fixing currencies to US dollars and accumulate reserves in dollars. Thus, the post-war global financial system was set which would eventually benefit the rich countries even after losing their colonies after the war while new global power USA would direct and protect the new international order promoting the new global financial set up. In due course, the system encountered challenges with the nature of the world economy changing. As the new millennium approached, the rich and influential -G7 economies (or the Group of 7 of rich industrialized countries-USA, Japan, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Canada and Italy) sensed the need for reform and include emerging economies of the world for deliberations over global financial matters. In the meantime, the financial crisis of 1999 led to the foundation of theG20, a a platform of emerging as well as developed economies. Remaining initially as the platform of finance ministers and central bank governors only, it took another financial crisis of 2008 to convert the gathering into the G20 Leaders’ Summit in 2008 and since 2010 the summit is held annually. The Group now contains 19 countries-Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, United Kingdom, United States as well as two regional blocs- European Union and African Union. In a way, it is a union of ‘rich Global North and poor Global South’.

What is Global South?

In his annual address to the nation from the historic Red Fort on the occasion of India’s independence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted this 15^th August that India has become the voice of the Global South. Previously also the Indian prime minister said that the ‘rights of the Global South have been long denied’ which, in his opinion, triggered anguish among these countries. He also expressed India’s advocacy for a comprehensive reshuffle of the Bretten Woods international institutions and demanded a ‘rightful place’ for the world’s most populous county India at the global stage. India’s advocacy for the overhauling of the Bretten Woods system underlines the determination of the emerging economies to deny the rich countries exclusive right to set rules of international financial governance any more. Growingly, these developing (as well as underdeveloped) countries are marked with a geographical tag, Global South, implying the poor and once colonised world outside Europe. As mentioned in the beginning of this article, Werner Levi had referred to this north-south division in his 1973 article, but the former German Chancellor Willy Brandt is credited for proposing the Brandt Line in 1980 partitioning the world into developed North and developing South who opined for more cooperation between the countries for a peaceful world ensuring sharing, justice and freedom. In a way, this was the preface of G20. Brandt’s theory of 1980 composed of 130 countries from the South, with ¾ of the world population and 1/5^th world income as well as continental Europe, USSR and Australia from the North with 1/4^th of the global population and 4/5^th of the world income. What is noteworthy in this theory is the geographical extension of the Global North which included Australia, situated in the southern hemisphere. Thus, the North-South division was not geographical but economical. In fact, many countries in the Global South category are in the northern hemisphere like India, countries on either sides of the equator in Africa as well as Latin America while Australia and New Zealand located in southern hemisphere are not part of it. A glimpse at the Brandt Line, running through the global map starts from north of Mexico, to the coast of China taking Africa, West Asia and the Gulf and India within its ambit and suddenly dives down to include Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands but excludes Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the vibrant Asian economies of the 1980s and Australia and New Zealand. Today’s G20 comprises 3 developing South American economies (Argentina, Brazil and Mexico), 3 developing Asian economies (India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia) and 9 developed economies (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom and USA). Russia and Turkey are also two Eurasian member countries along with China, world’s second largest economy. South Africa was the only developing economy as representative of the continent until the induction of African Union as permanent G20 member at the just concluded Delhi Summit. So far the group was called G20 with 19 individual countries and one regional bloc European Union as member. With the induction of the African Union now technically it is G-21. Thus, G20 (or G21?) is the international platform where the Global South meets with the Global North to chalk out plans for global cooperation on global concerns.

How G20 is becoming the voice of Global South?

The PwC 2017 report titled The Long View: How will the global economic order change by 2050  prophesied that by 2050 when China could be world’s largest economy accounting for 20 per cent of global GDP (Gross Domestic Product), India would hold the second place and Indonesia the fourth place while Mexico’s economy could be larger than UK and Germany by 2050. The report asserted that the developing economies will be the driving force in pushing the world economy to double its size by 2042 growing at an annual rate of 2.6 per cent between 2016 and 2050. Although the report was published before the black swan event of Covid pandemic which might have affected the calculations of the report, the role of the world’s emerging economies can hardly be belittled. Even during the pandemic, the emerging economies maintained a good economic track record deploying bold measures including economic relief measures. The GDP of the G20 area grew by 0.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2023 compared to 0.04 per cent in the last quarter mainly due to opening of Chinese economy (following the pandemic) where the growth picked up to 2.2 per cent compared to 0.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022 and also due to higher growth rate in India where GDP rose by 1.9 per cent in first quarter 2023, up from 1.0 per cent in fourth quarter of 2022. In Mexico, GDP growth reached 1.0 per cent in first quarter (compared with 0.6 per cent in fourth quarter) while in Brazil GDP rose by 1.9 per cent in the first quarter after contracting by 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter, while in South Africa GDP grew by 0.4 per cent after contracting by 1.1 per cent.

The uniform urge of the Global South has been for a multi-polar global system with no scope for domination by any single power or power group, which has been the global norm since the last world war. This was the essence of the BRICS summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa, this August, (weeks before the G20 summit in India) where the emerging global economies-Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa-met to enhance their economic potentials and play prominent role in global economy. On this occasion, Brazilian President Lula da Silva said the BRICS bloc aims to organize the developing Global South but assured not to rival the USA, G7 or G20. There is a growing exercise among the developing countries to utilize the international platforms to promote the voice of the ‘Global South.’ India, during her year long G20 presidency (which ended at the New Delhi summit where India handed over the baton to Brazil), also worked in this direction. She held the Voice of Global South Summit at the beginning of this year in January. The summit promoted the Indian prime minister’s vision to shape a positive G20 agenda through consultation with G20 countries and members of the Global South. Some 125 countries had participated in the virtual summitto focus international attention on priorities, perspectives and concerns of the developing world. India declared her commitment to promote the interests of the Global South as the president of G20 with Prime Minister Modi asserting that India’s G20 priorities would be to reach out to the entire Global South, remaining outside G20, “whose voice often goes unheard.” India invited six countries-UAE, Oman, Egypt, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Mauritius- as guest at the G20 summit at New Delhi who are not members of the global body.

The major success in the mission to promote the developing world’s voice at the global stage came with the induction of the African Union as the permanent member of the G20 at the New Delhi summit. India had been advocating for the induction of the African Union in the group and this June Prime Minister Modi wrote to the G20 members to provide the African Union full membership. Africa had been a happy hunting ground of the colonisers who not only exploited the resources of the continent but even disgraced humanity with their ill-treatment of the native people. With resources and potential, the continent finally gets its rightful place at the global stage to make its voice heard and considered. The implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area will also help boost trade with the continent in made-in Africa goods and services as was underlined by the Secretary-General of African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) Secretariat Wamkele Mene.

The Delhi Declaration of the G20 summit also reflects the aspiration to give the developing world its due importance as it commits to better integrate the perspectives of developing countries into future G20 agenda and strengthen the voice of developing countries in global decision making in order to empower the countries to address global challenges. The Declaration also emphasized on sustaining food and energy security and insisted on strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.

Another noticeable character of the G20 is its refusal to conform to the developed world’s (or Western) interpretation of any regional crisis with global ramifications. Thus the group is criticized in the Western media for not reprimanding Russia for her alleged invasion of Ukraine at its Delhi Declaration.  Although the Declaration mentioned the immeasurable human suffering caused by the war in Ukraine, it did not involve in blame game to embarrass a member country, but did not forget to underline the significant consequences of the war on the global economy either. Instead of conforming to the zero-sum attitude of the developed West vis-à-vis Russia, it opted for a balanced behaviour. When the world is simmering with big power rivalries and the  developed world tending to bring back camp politics of the cold war era with ripples felt in the neighbourhood of the developing countries, the Delhi Declaration of G20 reflects the concern of the Global South declaring ‘Today’s era must not be of war.’ This is a clear message that the non-Western developing world refuses to accept the peremptory attitude of the developed (Western) world over global issues and even vents it out openly in global platforms like G20. The Global South refuses to prioritize the European (or the developed world’s) concerns which is admitted, although grudgingly, by the Western media. The Global South, through platforms like G20, is challenging the international hierarchical structure diligently constructed by the Western victors of the last world war. When the developed world is pushing hard its agenda to maintain the international order it founded, the countries from the Global South, with economic priorities in agenda, are choosing to fight back rather than bandwagoning with the Global North through platforms like G20 and BRICS.

Conclusion

The Bandung Conference, held in 1955, was the first platform of its kind which was catered to the Global South. Newly liberated Afro-Asian countries met at the Indonesian city to ensure their share in the post-war global politics. Economically weak and many politically unstable also, the attendants of the Bandung meeting had the passions and the desires to change their condition and to find solutions to their common problems. India played a very important role in organizing this meeting amidst the cold war politics which eventually, and unfortunately, defeated the very objective of the meeting. More than half a century later, the Afro-Asian leaders again met, this time at the Indian capital, with the developed world amidst the same war like situation engulfing the world while the economic condition of many Afro-Asian and Latin American countries demanding immediate attention. G20 offers another platform to the Global South to fly in the face of the uppity of the Global North.

Subhadeep Bhattacharya , Adjunct Researcher

Asia in Global Affairs

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