G-20 summit

THE just-concluded G-20 summit was forecast to be unpredictable and exciting because of American President Donald Trump’s sharp break with previous US policies. The summit lived up to its billing. Trump’s allowed his unelected daughter Ivanka to briefly depute for him at a roundtable meeting. And in the joint declaration, Trump found himself on one side and the other 19 nations on the other on the issue of climate change. Trump also may not have liked the G-20’s resolve to keep markets open and fight protectionism. But G-20 did make a concession to Trump when it decided to take up the issue of excess capacity which tends to trigger trade wars and encourage dumping at below-market prices that destroy the domestic industry of the importing country.

But the pressure on G-20 to steer the world economy into calmer waters has eased since current growth prospects are encouraging even if the pace of growth is weaker than desirable. This has helped G-20 to continue with its past practice of widening the ambit of its deliberations to include terrorism, digitalisation and even combating antimicrobial resistance. G-20 was also the stage for simulated intimacy between the heads of government. The Trump-Putin-Modi trio stole the show while PM Modi also kept the dialogue going on greater security and defence cooperation with South Korea, sought Vijay Mallya’s repatriation from British PM Theresa May and touched base with old friend Shinzo Abe of Japan. 

While leaders confabulated behind closed doors, thousands took to the streets to express their dismay with an uneven world. Some of the grievances expressed on the streets such as labour mobility, health and human rights found their way in the communiqué. But some others remained mere promises. These include a new quota formula for the IMF that will give India a greater say in the way loans are distributed. The onus is now on G-20 to prove its credibility by acting on its declarations. Otherwise, it might degenerate into a convenient meeting point for world leaders while earning the tag of being yet another talk shop.