Australia’s wild about the G-20
Daniel Flitton of The Age described recently how Australia’s prime minister, Julia Gillard, summoned many of the country’s top diplomats to impress upon them the importance of the G-20 (h/t Sam Roggeveen of the Interpreter blog). During that meeting, a senior Australian diplomat apparently described the G-20 as "potentially the most significant new diplomatic initiative ...
Daniel Flitton of The Age described recently how Australia's prime minister, Julia Gillard, summoned many of the country's top diplomats to impress upon them the importance of the G-20 (h/t Sam Roggeveen of the Interpreter blog).
Daniel Flitton of The Age described recently how Australia’s prime minister, Julia Gillard, summoned many of the country’s top diplomats to impress upon them the importance of the G-20 (h/t Sam Roggeveen of the Interpreter blog).
During that meeting, a senior Australian diplomat apparently described the G-20 as "potentially the most significant new diplomatic initiative in the world since the founding of the United Nations. Australia is lucky to be a part of it – but if the forum is to last beyond the financial crisis of the past few years and Australia is to keep a spot at the top table, that place must be earned."
According to Flitton’s account, the prime minister asked Australia’s diplomatic corps to redouble its efforts to make the forum work:
”Now, all of this means that through Australian eyes we see the G20 as a serious strategic opportunity, not just for us but for the global economy,” she said. Later, she emphasised that the forum had a bigger role than just economic matters. It could help with alleviating poverty, for example, or tackling climate change.
What Gillard left unsaid is that Australia hopes 2014 will be the year it gets to host the G20 meeting. That would mean presidents from the US, China, France and Brazil would mix with prime ministers from Britain, and India and many other leaders here in Australia. Canberra would also have a chance to put its stamp on the agenda. Should that come off – and Gillard still be around as leader – it would be quite a coup.
I wrote recently that Beijing and Washington seem to have cooled considerably to the G-20. As this story indicates, there is still passion for the forum in some quarters. Canada, too, has always been enthusiastic about the G-groupings. There’s no secret as to why: via the G-20, Australia and Canada have seats with the big players in a way they don’t in most other forums, such as the IMF or UN Security Council. Quite naturally, they want the table they sit at to be the most relevant. But can the G-20 really function if less powerful members have to provide the energy and initiative?
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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