On November 15-16, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will participate in the G20 Summit in Bali (Indonesia). This year, most of the leaders of the G20 member states, invited states and heads of international organizations are expected. Almost all of them have already confirmed their presence.
Indonesia, chairing the G20 for the first time, has acted responsibly. Its motto is “Rebuilding Together and Better. The presidency’s initial priorities were centered around three key areas: 1) global health; 2) the energy transition; and 3) digital transformation. Later, due to changes in the international environment, food and energy security issues came to the fore and will set the tone for the leaders’ discussion at the Bali Summit.
The high-level meeting will conclude the annual presidency. At the initiative of the Indonesian side, special attention will be paid to three priority dimensions of cooperation: 1) ensuring food and energy security, 2) strengthening the architecture of global health, and 3) promoting digital transformation. Mobilizing financial support for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response; negotiating terms in coordination with multilateral development banks in exchange for developing countries’ access to financial sources and assets; reducing the debt burden; energy transition; and responding effectively to climate change will also be addressed.
The main practical outcome should be a declaration, an unsigned document endorsed without objection by the parties. Jakarta would like to make the text as comprehensive and concise as possible, comprehensively reflecting current challenges in the world economy and their specific solutions. Despite the complexity of the negotiation process on the draft document, Indonesia hopes to reach consensus agreements.
Indonesia also intends to back up the declaration with policy views with a practical G20 Action Plan for a strong and inclusive recovery – a separate annex with an illustrative list of international projects with the participation of G20 countries. The list includes eight Russian FIU and business projects in health care, digital economy and soil management.
The Indonesian presidency offered a full agenda. More than 180 official events were held. A number of meetings – on women’s empowerment, interaction within the chambers of commerce or on civil aviation – were held for the first time. This year, because of the Ukrainian issue, the summit of the presidents of the parliaments (Jakarta, October 6-7), in which the Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko participated, and the Religious Forum (Bali, November 2-3) were high-profile.
The G20 includes 19 countries (Russia, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, South Africa, Turkey, the United States) and the European Union. They account for 80% of GDP, international trade and greenhouse gas emissions, and 2/3 of the world’s population. This is the only platform for equal cooperation between the BRICS countries, the G7, and the regional powers.
The G20 focuses on responding to macroeconomic challenges and threats, preventing crises and disruptions in the world economy, and preserving the stability of markets and the financial sector. The guideline since 2009 has been ensuring continuous and inclusive economic growth. The discussion on socioeconomic issues has become complex and interlinked. This applies in particular to energy and climate issues, labor market and education, sustainable development and innovations.
Russia holds a leading position in the G20, and actively influences the course and direction of negotiations and the substantive aspects of agreements. We have always regarded this platform as the world’s leading economic forum. We believe that the global scale of contemporary challenges predetermines the need for collective counteraction to them on the basis of universally recognized principles and norms of international law. Here we see a special role for the G20, bringing together both developing and developed economies.
Russia believes it fundamentally important that the G20 should focus its efforts on real, rather than far-fetched, threats. We categorically reject politicization of the G20, the introduction into its discussions of non-core and knowingly confrontational topics and the isolation of individual participants on false accusations. We are convinced that the G20 is specifically designed to address social and economic issues. An expansion of its agenda at the expense of peace and security issues, which many other countries are also talking about, would not be viable. This would be a direct encroachment on the prerogatives of the UN Security Council and undermine the atmosphere of trust and cooperation in the G20 format at the expense of its much needed specialized activities.
Russia continues to advocate the openness of the world economy and the prevention of discrimination against its participants, including the unconditional and immediate lifting of all illegitimate unilateral restrictions. We are striving to ensure that the results of the G20 reflect our countries’ commitment to accelerating economic growth; securing sustainability of production chains, first of all for food and agricultural products; increasing access to medicine and medical services by increasing financing and improving health care systems; providing effective help to developing countries.
