Decisions of the G20 are by consensus and are recorded in a communiqué, but are not binding.
Russian experts have been skeptical about how effective the group has been in recent years.
“In general, both the G20 and the G7 stand for everything good against everything bad. Year in and year out, they publish beautiful communiqués calling for all the right things. But it’s difficult to say how much of this is actually implemented in real politics. Moreover, every year, a new chair country sets the tasks for the year, while ignoring what its predecessor had included,” Barabanov points out.
According to Bordachev, the last few years have betrayed the club’s lack of effectivity in solving the world economy’s most important problems.
“In recent years, it seems that everyone has been solving their problems individually. The format exists, and no one wants to abandon it because everyone wants a stage on which to speak out, but everyone really acts in their own interests. China is trying to gradually rebuild these institutions and organizations, which the West created with its own goals, according to its own vision. And now it’s important for Western countries to come out as a united front to show their unity to the world. But, of course, mistakes and problems that can’t be solved will not be recognized in the general communiqué,” he expects.
Zharikhin shares a similar point of view. In his opinion, all meetings and agreements have become devalued because “the world’s former leader, the United States, builds its policy as if in a game without rules.”
“Tomorrow they’ll say that they’ve decided otherwise – we remember how they’ve withdrawn from treaties and failed to fulfill their obligations. Objectively, all international organizations, starting with the UN, are losing their influence. But the point of participating in them still remains precisely for the sake of communicating with non-Western countries that are ready to seek compromise,” he believes.
Suzdaltsev agrees that there is not much life in G20 resolutions, since they contain mostly guidelines for the future.
“But there is a negotiating element at summits like these, and the G20 provides a forum for this. It’s still better than having a war,” he says.
By Maxim Hvatkov, a Russian journalist focusing on international security, China’s politics and soft-power tools.
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