G20 Summit 2018 | 03 Dec 2018
Recently, G20 (Group of Twenty) Summit was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- It was the first meeting of G20 in South America.
- G20 is the leading international forum for economic, financial and political cooperation.
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India will be hosting the G20 summit in 2022. Japan is scheduled to host the summit in 2019, followed by Saudi Arabia in 2020.
Key Points from the communique
- Climate change
- G20 signatories to the Paris Agreement, except the US, pledged for the “full implementation” of the pact, and called the pact as “irreversible.”
- The US reiterated its withdrawal from the agreement and affirmed its strong commitment to economic growth and energy access and security.
- Trade
- Under US pressure, the G20 said that multilateral trade was “falling short of its objectives” on promoting growth and job creation.
- It called for reforms of the World Trade Organisation to improve its functioning.
- International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- The G20 called IMF as important to the global safety net.
- The G20 pledged to provide adequate funding to IMF and to meet a goal of finalizing new national quotas in IMF in time.
- The country's quota in IMF determines it’s voting rights. Major emerging economies in the G20 such as China and India are pushing for reforms at the IMF.
- Corruption
- The communique said that the G20 is “committed to prevent and fight corruption.
- Gender inequality
- The G20 committed itself to a goal of reducing the gender gap in the labor force by 25% by 2025.
- Future of work
- Noting that new technologies will transform the nature of labor, the G20 called for “an inclusive, fair and sustainable” future of work, with retraining of workers where needed.
- Infrastructure
- Calling infrastructure a key driver of global growth, the G20 called for greater standardization in contract-making to encourage more private capital.
India at G20-2018
- India presented Nine Point Agenda suggested to G-20 for action against fugitive economic offenses and asset recovery:
- Strong and active cooperation across G-20 countries to deal comprehensively and efficiently with the menace fugitive economic offenders.
- Cooperation in the legal processes such as effective freezing of the proceeds of crime; early return of the offenders and efficient repatriation of the proceeds of crime should be enhanced and streamlined.
- To form a mechanism that denies entry and safe havens to all fugitive economic offenders.
- Principles of United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNOTC), especially related to "International Cooperation” should be fully and effectively implemented.
- Financial Action Task Force (FATF) should be called upon to assign priority and focus to establishing international co-operation that leads to the timely and comprehensive exchange of information between the competent authorities and Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs).
- FATF should be tasked to formulate a standard definition of fugitive economic offenders.
- FATF should also develop a set of commonly agreed and standardized procedures related to identification, extradition and judicial proceedings for dealing with fugitive economic offenders to provide guidance and assistance to G-20 countries, subject to their domestic law.
- A common platform should be set up for sharing experiences and best practices including successful cases of extradition, gaps in existing systems of extradition and legal assistance, etc.
- G-20 Forum should consider initiating work on locating properties of economic offenders who have a tax debt in the country of their residence for its recovery.
- India also held a number of bilateral and multilateral meetings on the sidelines of G20 like informal BRICS meeting, “RIC” Meeting, “JAI” Meeting.
JAI Trilateral
- JAI is acronym for Japan, America (US) and India.
- It was the first-ever trilateral meeting held by three countries at the highest political level.
- Prime Minister of India mentioned action points to help promote peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and highlighted the importance of working jointly in areas such as connectivity, sustainable development, disaster relief, maritime security, and mobility.
RIC Trilateral
- India also participated in a trilateral meeting with Russia and China.
- The first RIC Trilateral summit was held in 2006.
- In RIC, discussion on cooperation and coordination in various areas, which could contribute to global peace and stability took place.
Group of Twenty (G20)
- Founded 1999
- Initially, G20 was a forum of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy.
- The group has expanded its agenda since 2008 and head of government and states along with their finance and foreign ministers also meet at the summits.
- Collectively, the G20 members make up 85% of the world’s economic output, two-thirds of its population, 75% of international trade and 80% of global investments in research and development.
- The G20 has neither headquarters nor permanent staff. All organizational and logistical arrangements for meetings are handled by the country which is currently presiding over the group.
- Members
- G-20 members comprise Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK, and the US.
- It has 19 of the world’s largest economies as its members.
- The 20th member is the European Union, which is represented by whichever country holds the EU presidency.
- The United Nations (UN), IMF and the World Bank also attend G20 meetings.
- Spain is a permanent guest invitee.
- Two Tracks of G20:
- The Finance track comprises all meetings with G20 finance ministers and central bank governors and their deputies.
- They focus on financial and economic issues, such as monetary, fiscal and exchange rate policies, infrastructure investment, financial regulation, financial inclusion, and international taxation.
- The Sherpa track focuses on broader issues such as political engagement, anti-corruption, development, trade, energy and climate change, gender equality, among others.
- The Finance track comprises all meetings with G20 finance ministers and central bank governors and their deputies.
- Major Achievements of G20
- Major achievements of the G20 include quick deployment of emergency funding during the 2008 global financial crisis.
- It also works for reforms in international financial institutions by improving oversight of national financial institutions.
- Over the past few years, G20 has also become a platform to discuss nearly all issues that affect the world.