The Big Twenty is an organization that many have heard of. It combines 20 key economic systems of the planet located on different continents. This article will discuss the history of this association, its goals and objectives, as well as relations between Russia and other participants in this forum.
The year of foundation of the G20 is considered 1999. Since 2008, the organization regularly holds meetings of its members. Of particular great interest to the world community was the penultimate one, the Brisbane Summit. The Big Twenty on it tried to solve several crucial problems.
G20: start
The Big Twenty (or in abbreviated form - G20) acts as the international association of global scale. The largest economies of the planet take part in it.
Few people know that initially the composition of the G20 included not at all 20 states, but 33! However, a year later, in 1999, the number of forum participants was reduced to the usual twenty today. Whether he will remain so in future years is unknown to anyone.
A kind of impetus for the formation of the G20 was the 1998 economic crisis, which swept all of East Asia. And the consequences of this crisis were felt on almost all of our planet. However, he helped leading players on the political map of the world to recognize the need to create such a global force that could prevent similar economic crises in the future. And such an organization was established - it became the Big Twenty.
G20: goals and objectives
The constant, steady growth of the planetary economy is the main postulate and the main goal of this organization. Moreover, this steady increase should affect all countries of the world without exception.
Within the G20 structure, its members are trying to find adequate solutions to a whole range of topical problems:
- What are the best ways to stabilize global economic growth?
- How to properly develop financial and social infrastructure.
- How to ensure food security in poor countries.
- How to resolve many local and regional conflicts.
- How to "save" the ecology of our planet, etc.
The G20 countries also spend a lot of energy and energy on finding ways to solve the corruption problem. They are also involved in the implementation of many climate programs.
Of course, the work of the G20 does not do without a portion of criticism. Most often, the organization is accused of insufficient transparency of activities, as well as of too few forum participants who undertook to solve such important global problems.
G20: list of countries
The international forum G20 is:
- 58% of the global area;
- about 60% of the total population of the Earth;
- 85% of all world trade.
Listed below are all the countries of the Big Twenty (which are members of the association today):
- Canada.
- USA.
- Mexico.
- Brazil.
- Argentina.
- SOUTH AFRICA.
- Great Britain.
- France.
- Italy.
- Germany.
- Russia.
- Turkey.
- Saudi Arabia.
- China.
- India.
- Japan.
- South Korea.
- Indonesia.
- Australia.
You can see the localization of all the above countries on the world map below. It can be concluded that G20 members are present on all continents of the planet, except Antarctica.
But who is missing the G20 on this list? The twentieth member of the forum is the European Union as an organization. In addition, representatives of the IMF, World and European Central Banks often take part in G20 Summits. This is the full composition of the Big Twenty.
G20 Summits
The main form of activity of the G20 is the summit. The Big Twenty gathers for such meetings annually. Each year, a new host country is selected for the next summit. It also hosts the organization’s secretariat.
Heads of state (presidents and prime ministers), as well as ministers of individual departments, usually come to such meetings. The first G20 summit was held in 2008 in the US capital and was called the anti-crisis. Obviously, it discussed ways out of the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 .
The Big Twenty holds their summits approximately once a year (only in 2009 and 2010 there were two of them). Most often, meetings take place in the fall: in September or November. Perhaps the greatest interest in the history of the G20 was the Brisbane Summit of 2014. It will be discussed further.
It is not necessary to think that all the work of the forum is reduced only to organizing and conducting annual meetings. At the next summit, they discuss and approve a specific action plan, the implementation of which then continues in the work of various groups and specialized units.
G20 and Russian Federation
The issue of relations in the G20 - Russia system in recent years has been of particular interest to the world community.
As you know, in 2014, Russia's membership in the G8 group was suspended. As a result, the G8 ceased to exist and returned to its original format - the G7 group.
Soon, rumors spread around the world that Russia was going to be excluded from the G20. Australia was most predisposed to this, which was to host the next summit in Brisbane the day before. The government of this country accused Russia of direct involvement in the downed Boeing-MN 17 passenger plane in the skies over Eastern Ukraine.
However, after long discussions between the forum participants, the Russian delegation was still invited to the summit in the Australian city of Brisbane. The main message of this decision was this: the exclusion of Russia from the G20 will further sharpen the already difficult geopolitical situation in the modern world.
G20 in Australia (Brisbane Summit)
The so-called Australian G20 Summit (2014) was held in Brisbane, a million-strong city on the east coast of the country. The heads of state traditionally gathered at the annual meeting of the forum, which lasted two days: November 15 and 16.
The main topic for discussion was the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine, which began in the spring of that year. In addition, countries paid special attention to the eternal problem of corruption. In addition to the heads of 19 states, the summit was also attended by Herman Van Rompuy - President of the European Council. The meeting in Australia ended with the approval of a joint action plan.
Key Backgrounds and Outcomes of the G20 Brisbane Summit
The 2014 Brisbane Summit was held against the backdrop of increasing general geopolitical instability on the planet. So, among the main topics of the meeting, the following were raised:
- the continuation of the civil war in Syria and the formation of ISIS - a new terrorist threat to the whole world;
- a new round of escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict;
- active hostilities in the Donbass and possible solutions to the conflict;
- the stagnation of the German and Italian economies, on which the stability of the entire European Union largely depends .
In addition, the Brisbane Summit also discussed the worldwide fall in black gold prices, and again looked for ways to stop the spread of Ebola.
What is the outcome of the participants in this summit? The main thing that it was decided to throw all the G20 into the coming year is the issue of world security. In addition, the G20 states set a global goal for themselves: to increase global GDP by 2% (until 2018). To this end, the "powers that be" have planned to increase international competition and increase the volume of allocated investments in economic projects.
G20 Summit in Antalya
The last G20 Summit was held in Turkish Antalya. The meeting of world leaders took place against the backdrop of the Paris attacks, which, of course, were immediately condemned. Obviously, the main theme of the Turkish summit was international terrorism.
At this meeting, Jean-Claude Juncker raised another sore subject - the problem of refugees from zones of military conflict. The summit noted the huge contribution of Turkey and Russia in the fight against the terrorist organization ISIS. The meeting participants did not pass by the traditional G20 issue of global economic growth.
As you know, the next G20 summit is scheduled to be held in China.
Conclusion
The international forum G20 was created in 1999 with the aim of a joint search for solutions to many global problems of the modern world. Initially, these were ordinary meetings of individual ministers. But over time, the Big Twenty began to hold large summits to which the heads of the leading states of our planet were invited.
Today, the G20 includes 19 countries, as well as one organization - the European Union. The last G20 summit was held in Antalya in November 2015.