On December 12, the Valdai Club hosted a discussion dedicated to the end of Brazil’s presidency in the G20 and the beginning of South Africa’s presidency. Moderator Oleg Barabanov noted that Brazil’s year brought serious, qualitative changes. He proposed to discuss its results and plans for the next year.
Marco Fernandes, editor of Wenhua Zongheng International, called the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro a major diplomatic victory for Brazil. He emphasized that Brazil had achieved a lot in terms of the agenda. Fernandes believes that the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty is the most important initiative, because, according to FAO, 733 million people on the planet still suffer from hunger, although humanity produces much more food than it needs. “This is essentially a crime,” the analyst said. Against this background, questions arise about the credibility of the G7, whose projects for the development of the countries of the Global South are proclaimed with much fanfare, but quickly fizzle out. Given this, as well as the hostility of US President-Elect Donald Trump to multilateral organizations, projects of this kind could become an area of work for BRICS, Fernandez believes.
Mikatekiso Kubayi, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD) at UNISA, presented a view from South Africa. He pointed out the need to ensure continuity with Brazil and consistency of approaches. Speaking about South Africa’s plans, he noted that such areas as the fight against climate change, the fight against inequality, food security, reform of international organizations and global trade infrastructure, digital transformation and investment are especially important for it as an African country. “The world is currently fragmenting – it is becoming more disjointed,” Kubayi added, stressing that in this regard, South Africa is also concerned about the problems of creating a sustainable economy and ensuring access to global value chains. “One of our main goals is to change the situation and we need certain results,” he concluded. “We will try to offer specific solutions.”
Marina Larionova, Director of the Center for International Institutions Studies at RANEPA and Russia’s Sherpa in the Think 20 (T20), sees a significant achievement for Brazil in making another step towards depoliticizing the G20 documents. As a result, the problem of geopolitical confrontation remained outside the final document of the summit, which made it possible to formulate a constructive approach. She is convinced that the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty should become an effective multilateral international institution, not directly tied to the G20 or BRICS and capable of mobilizing the necessary resources and minimizing food losses and unfair distribution. “Russia has joined this initiative, fully supported it and shares its priorities. We have extensive experience in the area of the trends that were identified. And other BRICS partners have also joined this work,” Larionova asserted, admitting that the achievements are more modest when it comes to such priorities as combating climate change and reforming global governance, but South Africa intends to continue working on them during its presidency. Overall, she believes that Brazil has contributed to the consolidation of the influence of developing countries in the G20 and the strengthening of the G20 as a platform for economic cooperation.
Viktoria Panova, Head of the BRICS Expert Council Centre, Vice-Rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia’s Sherpa in the Women’s Twenty (W20) noted as a positive moment that the G20 has been led by countries of the Global South for the past three years and the next chairman is also one of them. The question is whether real resources and finances will be behind the big promises. The G20 is important because it continues to bring together the BRICS+, the G7 and the growing regional powers. From this perspective, the value of the group is unconditional, she stressed, making clear that “at least some dialogue is taking place here,” unlike many other venues. Panova also pointed out that after South Africa, the presidency will be transferred to the United States, and Trump is sceptical about international institutions and interstate agreements. To what extent, given that, it will be possible to consolidate the results of the previous four years remains questionable. But this is extremely important to do amid current extreme geopolitical tensions.
