Deeper and more stretched divisions over Russia’s war in Ukraine endanger derailing growth on problems like food safety, debt worries and global cooperation on climate transformation when the world’s most wonderful countries meet this weekend in New Delhi. The hardened stance on the war has hindered agreement on even a single communique at the 20 or so ministerial meetings of the G20 during India’s presidency this year, which puts this work on governers to discover a way around, if possible.
But China will be shown by Premier Li Qiang, not President Xi Jinping, whilst Russia has agreed to President Vladimir Putin’s missing presence, which tells us that neither country seems interested to be a part of any consensus. That suggests the two-day summit from September 9 will be ruled by the West and its allies.
The G20 governers who will go involve U.S. President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman and Japan’s Fumio Kishida. An unsuccessful summit would reveal the limitations of cooperation between Western and non-Western powers, and prompt nations to double down on the parties they are more comfortable with, analysts said. To deal with global perils “breaking off into Western and non-Western blocs aren’t what you want,” said Michael Kugelman, the director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington.