Friday, 25 September 2009
The future of the G8 is one of the widely discussed issues in Pittsburgh, the city in which the historic G20 summit is held. It is expected that the G8 summits will be replaced with the G20 summits beginning next year.
According to the Globe and Mail “British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and unidentified officials said yesterday that the G20 will replace the club of wealthy nations as the main forum to address the world's economic agenda.”
The tendency to consolidate G20 as a more formal international economic platform is interpreted as a clear sign for the Western leaders to recognize the changing balances in the world economy. As the financial crisis deepened after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the G20 summits became more important both for world leaders and the general public. The major questions, in this context, turned out to be the possible contributions of the emerging markets, especially China and India, for the recovery of the world economy. Parallel to the increasing economic influence, the emerging markets raised their voice for more voting rights at the international fora. Accordingly, the voting rights at IMF are set to redesign in order to represent more economies.
Philip Stephens wrote in Financial Times that, “four things stood out from this week’s surfeit of summitry: China’s, albeit reluctant, embrace of multilateralism; the rising challenge from the Middle East to western and, especially, US power; Barack Obama’s effort to frame new rules for the global game; and Europe’s place on the margins of influence.”
Urgent Action is a Priority
The world leaders, albeit they have wide differences in priorities, reached the consensus that urgent action is vital to overcome the structural imbalances in the world economy.
“We need to act before the memory of the crisis fades, if you wait, the harder it will be to act. There is a common recognition of that,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said at a press conference.
By Ahmet Kayhan (JTW)
