Trump-Xi Will Make Us Forget This Weekend’s G-20 Confab
The organization has proven unwieldy and ineffectual, so all the attention will be on the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies.
Nothing else matters very much.
Photographer: Thomas Peters/Getty Images AsiaPac
This weekend’s G-20 summit in Argentina will likely demonstrate what does and doesn’t work for this multilateral format, but also for international policy gatherings more generally. Despite weakening and diverging global economic growth, the aspiration for the larger discussions among leaders representing about three-quarters of global gross domestic product has been reduced to issuing bland joint communiques — and that’s assuming an agreement on this can be achieved. The real action will be taking place in the bilateral meetings that occur on the sidelines, with particular interest in the conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Created with the hope to reflect new global economic realities, the G-20 has been on a downward trend since its successful London summit in April 2009. Yes, it remains a more representative group than the G-7, which is dominated by developed economies; and yes, it has a more flexible setup than many of the long-standing international organizations. But its accomplishments — be they in the formulation of policy initiatives or the monitoring thereof — have been largely disappointing and limited. This isn’t expected to change anytime soon, despite the mounting challenges facing global economic well-being and financial stability.