G-20 Must Begin the Next Chapter in Multilateralism
The cure for pandemic-ravaged economies lies in a commitment to debt-relief and spending.
No time to lose.
Photographer: Fayez Nureldine/AFP
For all of its branding as “the premier forum for international economic cooperation,” let’s recall that the Group of 20 was born under a bad sign. The heads of state first met in the maw of the 2008 financial crisis, in the dying days of the Bush administration. Now, as they limp toward a low-expectation summit in the twilight of the Trump era, under the presidency of a Saudi Arabia struggling to launder its global reputation, the stars look just as bad.
In April 2009, at just the second full summit meeting of the new great-power forum, Gordon Brown and Barack Obama chivvied and haggled with Hu Jintao, Angela Merkel, and Nikolas Sarkozy. The leaders of big developing economies were there too of course, with left-leaning technocrats like India’s Manmohan Singh and Brazil’s Lula Inacio da Silva lending more equitable look the high council of global economic governance.