The G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Brazil has seen the collective West and the Global South seek a common denominator that would provide for their peaceful coexistence. So far in vain, as the Group of Twenty has been split to the core.
The latest meeting in Rio de Janeiro is deemed as the key preparatory forum for the head-of-state-and-government-level summit due on November 18 to 19. Meanwhile, the G20 split has become a visible continuation of the world’s major split into two irreconcilable camps — collective West and the global South. Why? Because G20 accounts for about 85 percent of global GDP, over 75 percent of world trade and some two-thirds of the planet’s population.
The US-led West is tooth and nail clinging to the previous world order with a hegemon who dictated its terms to everyone else. And the Global South, which is being grouped within the growing BRICS bloc, is building a new multipolar global architecture with dollar monopoly to give way to a balance of economic and political interests of all those engaged in international trade exchanges and international relations in general.
Since the global economic downturn of 2008, the G20 has become a forum to discuss “non-core topics” — purely political ones, not directly related to economics or finance. During Russia's war in Ukraine, the United States and its allies have been trying to make G20 focus on this issue, along with leverage on Russia. For this very reason, Russia announced prior to the meeting that its delegation “intends to draw the partners’ special attention to the unacceptability of politicization of the Group of Twenty, which, according to the mandate, is designed to focus strictly on socio-economic challenges.”
Speaking at the session itself, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that G20 would unlikely manage to find solutions to global security threats, but it could clearly state its waiver of weaponizing economy. According to Lavrov, this would be the G20’s contribution to creating “material conditions to search for the ways to settle conflicts through inclusive diplomacy, respecting the central role of the UN Security Council, and not through closed formats and formulas, based on ultimatums.” And this not only refers to Russia’s stance but to that of other G20 member states as well. Even Bloomberg recognized this, reporting that the format is crossing over to its original goal of promoting economic cooperation and strengthening financial stability to prevent global financial crisis 2.0.
Meanwhile, the US example of politicizing G20 has a downside totally unacceptable to the West. The ministerial meeting has taken place amid a high-profile diplomatic scandal between host-country Brazil and Israel, which is not a member of the group. The balloon went up after President Lula da Silva compared Israeli actions in Gaza to genocide and the Holocaust, causing Tel Aviv declare him persona non grata. In response, official Brasilia said Israel was "raising a smoke screen to hide the real problem, which is the ongoing massacre in Gaza." Lula's words both incited a bilateral diplomatic crisis and sharpened the split among the member states. In fact, Lula provoked visible manifestations of a real global disunity, in particular on the wars in Israel and Ukraine.
Just the day before, all the world's media noted that the later disagreement threatens to paralyze the work of Brazil-chaired G20. Officials from developing countries including South Africa and Brazil have said they want their position on Israel’s genocide to be evidenced in any joint document. The Global South prefers to stay away from the war in Ukraine by remaining neutral.
The United States and its allies have opposed Brazil and South Africa’s willingness to pillorize Israel in the joint final declaration. Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who had a separate meeting with President Lula, pointed to US "disagreement" with Brazilian statements on Israel. But the adamant Brazilian leader failed to waive political discussion. What is the point of such meetings otherwise? To confirm loyalty to the United States for the umpteenth time?
As a result, the session participants agreed to do without a joint statement at all. Secretary for Economic and Financial Affairs at Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mauricio Carvalho Lyrio explained that "a declaration can’t be an end in itself." “There is an obsession to make statements, but sometimes they prevent progress in the discussions,” the diplomat stressed.
The current meeting of G20 foreign ministers has made clear that Brazil’s Lula da Silva is one of the top Global South politicians. The only Latin American BRICS member so far, Brazil has turned into its global-scale engine. Lula, as the host of the meeting in Rio, has actually squeezed the BRICS agenda into the G20 framework. He raised the issue of a global governance crisis, which was an undisguised outburst against the United States and the entire collective West in their global fate-maker game. Brazil's leader has prioritized global governance in G20 this year, making the forum focus on reforming international organizations — the UN, the IMF and the World Bank — to make them "more democratic."
The Brazilian side has stated that “we are living in a world with no governance, and the proliferation of conflicts is unprecedented. There is a lack of governance to deal with global challenges.” Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, in turn, called the UN Security Council paralyzed and unable to cope with present-day security challenges, including in the Middle East and Ukraine.
The situation being what it is, Brazil's stated intent to seek more UNSC permanent members looks quite exceptional and meets resistance from Western countries having a right of veto. Meanwhile, Russia has previously voiced approval of making Brazil and India permanent Security Council members.
This context should underlie Brazil’s proposal to hold the second meeting of G20 foreign ministers in September during the UN General Assembly session in New York. The formal objective would be “advancing global governance negotiations,” which Brazil has invited all of the UN to join.
In foreseeable future, until the November G20 summit, the world will be witnessing the collective West’s desperate resistance to leverage coming from the Global South in search of respect for its interests. It is entirely possible that Washington will try to torpedo all of its initiatives on reforming global governance.
