Takeaways from the G20 Foreign Minister’s Meeting

They shared their views on boosting principles of multilateralism in the current geopolitical scenario. The second session focused on addressing food insecurity and the global rise in commodity prices with guest speakers Damilola Ogunbiyi, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy, Mari Pangestu, Managing Director of the World Bank, and David Beasley, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme [1].

In its role as the host country, Indonesia called for finding a way forward in discussion about the Russia-Ukraine crisis which has severely impacted food and energy prices. One of the major concerns for the participants of the meeting was getting food shipments out of Ukraine to tackle the food shortages in other parts of the world. 

Not a normal summit:

Christian Wagner, spokesperson of the German foreign ministry in a statement regarding the G20 meeting said that it would not be a “normal summit” or “business as usual”. For Indonesia, convening the meeting was a challenge amidst threats of boycotting the meeting by the Western countries. The talking points in the meeting were highly influenced by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis. In March, US President Joe Biden called for the exclusion of Russia from the G20, reducing the level of participation of Western nations in the meeting and refusing to participate if Russia accepts the invitation. However, Western leaders saw any boycotts as non-productive and decided to participate [2].

Commitment to Multilateralism:

Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi in the first session noted that there is a need to revisit the sense of solidarity and cooperation so that countries work as partners for true multilateralism. He added that there is only one international system in the world with the United Nations at the core and underpinned by international law and putting own security above all by any country will split the international system. Wang Yi concluded by saying that they seek to work alongside others to foster inclusive recovery and growth through macroeconomic policy coordination [3].

Singapore’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan emphasized the value of multilateralism, dialogue, and diplomacy for peace and respect for international law and sovereignty.  In her remarks at the first plenary session named “Strengthening Multilateralism”, Dr. Balakrishnan highlighted four points. Firstly, she expressed gratitude to Indonesia for convening the meeting as she called for dialogue and diplomacy to be essential. Secondly, she called to recommit collectively to avoid any armed conflict. She further highlighted the devastating impacts of wars historically and said that in such conflicts, only the weaker side shares disproportionate suffering. In her third point, citing the example of the 12^th World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference she called to update and strengthen the international organizations to remain effective in mitigating crises, fostering cooperation, and resolving differences. In her final point, she called for a multilateral system that is inclusive and rules-based. Further, she called to avoid falling back to a Cold War-type era, avoiding protectionism and bifurcations in trade, finance, and technology [4].

Foreign Minister of Canada Melanie Joly in her statement showcased Canada’s commitment toward multilateralism and cooperation citing that resolving most contemporary issues requires cooperation at the international level. She further highlighted that Russia being a G20 member is in violation of international law and that the G20 cannot ignore this [5].

Food and Energy Security:

In the second plenary session, Wang Yi clarified China’s position by highlighting their cooperation initiatives and contributions to ensuring food security globally. Some of these initiatives include not imposing export restrictions on humanitarian food purchases by the World Food Programme; supporting the UN to play a role in coordination; facilitating the smooth entry of agricultural products and inputs from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus into the international market and supporting the developing countries in enhancing their food production and storage capacity. Some proposals by China include that the countries that are major food producers and exporters should be releasing their own export potential and must ease the tight food supply; emergency measures for food trade should be transparent, targeted, short-term, and should conform to the WTO rules and supporting the International Agricultural Research and the cooperation on agricultural science and technology innovation among countries;

Dr. Balakrishnan at the second plenary session again made her remarks on four distinct points. Firstly, she pointed out that the weaponizing of food needs to be stopped citing other issues of energy, water, and food crises. Her second point was regarding resisting protectionism and keeping borders open. In her third point, she emphasized the need of advancing food technology to increase yields and overcome food shortages. She further addressed issues of some countries that have a precautionary posture towards GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) and depletion of fish stocks due to IUU (Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported) fishing. Her final remark was regarding energy transition where she highlighted that due to the ongoing geostrategic crisis, transitioning of green energy has become an issue of resilience. She addressed this issue as an imperative to emphasize the importance of multilateralism and cross-border trade and supply chains of renewable energy resources.

Russia’s assertion that the ongoing food crisis is due to the sanctions was rejected by the Canadian Foreign Minister saying that Russia has long relied on disinformation to shift blame to the West. She added that Russia continues to threaten food security and is destroying Ukraine’s food and agricultural supply capacity. For its part in solving the food crisis, Canada will be increasing domestic food production and also seeks to expand its fertilizer exports to countries affected most by the crisis. Further, Canada has announced a fund of $250 million which will be addressing the increasing global food and nutrition needs with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and other vulnerable regions. An additional amount of $52 million in funding has also been announced to support agricultural solutions including the storage of grains in Ukraine.

Walk out by Russia:

Although the two plenary sessions were about multilateralism and food and energy security, it was the Russia-Ukraine Crisis that overshadowed the meeting and was a major discussion point with multiple leaders discussing the issue bilaterally alongside the meeting. Among the G20 members, the western nations have accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine and have put sanctions while countries like India, China, Indonesia, and South Africa did not follow the Western actions. The Russian invasion violates international law and threatens food and energy security globally. Therefore, Russia was met with heavy criticism. The G20 ministers called out Russia for threatening food security and that it must end the blockade of food grain in Ukraine. According to the Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, the issue of the Russia-Ukraine conflict dominated the war due to its implications on food and energy security. Upon arrival when Sergey Lavrov greeted Retno Marsudi, shouts were heard like “When will you stop the war” and “Why don’t you stop the war.” According to Lavrov, the Western nations upon taking the floor immediately started criticizing the Russian Federation regarding the crisis. He further added that the G20 was founded to find common ground on the global economy to address key issues, instead the western nations turn to “rabid Russophobia”. In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov walked out of the meeting denouncing what he called “frenzied criticism” from the West [6].

Maria Zakharova, Spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the West failed to organize Russia’s boycott and that there was no boycott from the Russian side. She further added that the failure of the boycott led to an isolation of the G7 and therefore the Western media tried to build up the theme of a boycott by Russia. Further, the statement highlighted that the West has been trying to push its supremacy through unilateral sanctions and that the liberal regimes of the West have no interest in the fate of the world and are keen on colonial thinking [7].

Sergey Lavrov’s press statements:

Following the meeting, Sergey Lavrov stated that the Western countries portray the Russia-Ukraine conflict as “front page news” during international discussions and that resuming the grain supply is the only solution to this problem. He highlighted that the locked-up grains only account for less than one percent of the total output and therefore do not pose any serious food insecurity. Lavrov further added that the West did not follow the mandate of the G20 regarding discussions on regulating global economic issues and reaching agreements, instead, the Western nations resorted to frenzied criticism the moment they took the floor. Lavrov concluded that despite the behavior of Western colleagues, the meeting proved to be useful since it was possible to put forth some extremely impartial questions to the western leadership [8].

Addresses by other speakers:

A statement by Ahmed M. Saeed, Vice President of Asian Development Bank mentioned that collaborative action through multilateral forums is crucial for addressing the ongoing transnational issues like the Covid-19 pandemic and climate crisis. Since issues like climate crisis, in particular, cannot be resolved by a single actor, these must be addressed multilaterally. He further stated that multilateral organizations are not yet fully adapted to the requirements of the global changes in the new era and therefore must pursue institutional reforms to ensure their relevance. In this regard, Saeed illustrated a few examples of ADB’s work in the climate arena like providing climate finance of $100 billion to developing Asian countries by 2030, the Innovative Finance for Climate in Asia and the Pacific, a climate innovation fund, a sustainable infrastructure fund and the Energy Transition Mechanism for decommissioning of coal in Indonesia [9].

In a video message regarding strengthening multilateralism, United Nations Secretary-General cited the issues of the climate crisis, Covid-19, and the war in Europe as risks to the international order, and therefore the theme of the meeting being strengthening multilateralism was not a choice but a necessity. He further mentioned cyberspace in the context of evolving conflicts which requires multilateral frameworks to foster solutions. He highlighted three areas that require urgent multilateral action. The first area of cooperation mentioned was the climate crisis, the second was the energy, food, and financial crisis and finally the third was unequal recovery from the financial crisis. The Secretary-General then mentioned his ideas in a report titled “Our Common Agenda”. An example was the Biennial Summits which would bring together the UN’s Economic and Social Council, Office of the Secretary-General, international financial organizations, and the G20 to maintain an inclusive, sustainable and resilient global economy [10].

Bilateral discussions:

Other than the official plenary discussions, the ministers on the sidelines of the two-day event, also engaged in bilateral discussions with their counterparts from other nations discussing mutual interests and cooperation on relevant regional and global issues. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi held a bilateral discussion with Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy ahead of the G20 meeting to discuss the crisis in Ukraine and its implications on the global food supply chain. During the meeting, Retno expressed gratitude to Josep Borrell for his attendance for the meeting [11].

Dr.  Balakrishnan also held bilateral talks regarding regional and global developments with Indonesian Minister Retno Marsudi, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Catherine Colonna, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Argentina Santiago Cafiero, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico Marcelo Ebrard, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain Jose Manuel Albares Bueno.

India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar also engaged bilaterally with his American, Russian, and French counterparts US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sergey Lavrov, and Catherine Colonna where Jaishankar focussed on multiple challenges with a “greater understanding and openness” [12].  

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin also held back-to-back bilateral talks with his counterparts from Spain, Indonesia, Australia, Germany, China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the European Union to discuss regional and global issues. Later Minister Park Jin held his first trilateral session with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa regarding regional powers' efforts to bolster their cooperation [13].

Conclusion:

The two plenary sessions of this meeting were about strengthening multilateralism and ensuring food and energy security. Both these issues are crucial given that the world has been witnessing issues like the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Resolving such issues requires cooperation as no single actor can tackle these problems alone. All the ministers present in the meeting affirmed the need for global cooperation and true multilateralism. The second session regarding food and energy security is where the discussion got limited to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The threats of boycott from the western nations had already hinted that Russia will have a tough time presenting its own stand on the issue. It is true that the ongoing conflict has disrupted the global economy and was a relevant point of discussion, however, it was the conflict that overshadowed the entire meeting. Thus, the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia was largely marked by all nations understanding the need for strengthening multilateralism in the first plenary, while the issue of food and energy security in the second plenary session was confined to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

Endnotes:

1.      G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting to be Held in Bali, G20, 6 July 2022 https://g20.org/g20-foreign-ministers-meeting-to-be-held-in-bali/

2.      Kate Lamb and David Brunnstrom, Not 'business as usual' for G20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali, Asia Pacific, Reuters, 7 July 2022 https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/not-business-usual-g20-foreign-ministers-meeting-bali-2022-07-06/

3.      Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin’s Regular Press Conference on July 11, 2022, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 11 July 2022 https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/202207/t20220711_10718490.html

4.      “Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan's Engagements at the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Bali, Indonesia, 7 to 8 July 2022”, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore, 8 July 2022 https://www.mfa.gov.sg/Newsroom/Press-Statements-Transcripts-and-Photos/2022/07/20220708_G20

5.      Minister Joly concludes successful participation in G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Indonesia, Global Affairs Canada, Government of Canada, 9 July 2022 https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2022/07/minister-joly-concludes-successful-participation-in-g20-foreign-ministers-meeting-in-indonesia.html

6.      G20 foreign ministers meet: Russia-Ukraine war overshadows the crucial meeting, Wion News, 8 July 2022 https://www.wionews.com/world/g20-foreign-ministers-meet-russia-ukraine-war-overshadows-the-crucial-meeting-495673

7.      No boycott by Russia at G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, West fails to do it — spokeswoman, Tass Russian News Agency, 8 July 2022 https://tass.com/politics/1477639

8.      Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions following the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Denpasar, July 8, 2022, The Embassy of the Russian Federation to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 11 July 2022, https://www.rusemb.org.uk/article/763

9.     G20 Indonesia 2022 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting - Ahmed Saeed, Asian Development Bank, 8 July 2022 https://www.adb.org/news/speeches/g20-indonesia-2022-foreign-ministers-meeting-ahmed-saeed

10.  Secretary-General's video message to the G20 Foreign Ministers: “Strengthening Multilateralism, 8 July 2022 https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2022-07-08/secretary-generals-video-message-the-g20-foreign-ministers-%E2%80%9Cstrengthening-multilateralism%E2%80%9D

11.  Retno hosts bilateral meetings ahead of G20 FMM in Bali, The Jakarta Post, 7 July 2022 https://www.thejakartapost.com/world/2022/07/07/retno-hosts-bilateral-meetings-ahead-of-g20-fmm-in-bali.html

12.  G20: Jaishankar Meets Anthony Blinken, Sergey Lavrov and Catherine Colonna, The Wire, 8 July 2022 https://thewire.in/diplomacy/g20-jaishankar-meets-anthony-blinken-sergey-lavrov-and-catherine-colonna

13.  FM Park advocates 'rules-based multilateralism' at G20 meeting, The Korea Times, 8 July 2022 https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2022/07/356_332427.html

Pic Courtesy-Marius Serban at unsplash.com

(The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent views fo CESCUBE.)