The G20, an international forum with considerable economic weight

Over the years, the G20 has established itself as the main forum for international economic cooperation. However, he is not very old. Barely 25 years old, since the “Group of Twenty” was born in 1999. At the time, several financial crises forced developed states to engage more with emerging countries. In particular the Asian economic crisis of 1997-1998.

This is the essence of the G20: it closely associates the developed countries, already united since 1975 within the G7 (Germany, Canada, United States, France, United Kingdom, Italy and Japan), with around ten emerging countries. , including the famous BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). All these states meet once a year and must each time produce a joint declaration, beyond the numerous bilateral discussions.

When the G20 was created, the European Union was integrated. Twenty-four years later, the members of the G20 have decided to also involve the African Union, which some consider to be a small revolution. The enlargement of the G20, which will not change its name according to a diplomatic source, will increase the economic weight of the organization. Already, in its G20 version, the member countries represent no less than 85% of the gross world product, an overwhelming share of the wealth produced on the planet.

G20 member countries represent almost two-thirds of the world's population. A sign of the new global balances, emerging countries weigh much more heavily than developed countries, which only account for 10% of the world population.

The twenty countries of this economic forum alone account for more than three-quarters of the planet's trade. This also explains why the G20, originally dedicated only to strict macroeconomic issues, was the occasion for discussions on the subject of trade in particular – but now also on the subject of climate change, health and even agriculture.

The UN secretary-general had a thunderous formula at the opening of the annual G20 summit on Friday. He called this “global family” from New Delhi “dysfunctional”. Two hot topics are indeed straining relations between the different countries: the war in Ukraine on the one hand and the “cold war” in which the Chinese and Americans have been engaged for several years. As a result, neither Vladimir Putin nor Xi Jinping made the trip to India. Sign that globalization could have lead in the wing.