G20: There have never been as many summit meetings as today. And they have never been so pointless

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Some Sherpas don’t even get around to unpacking their suitcases. The representatives of the five BRICS states were in South Africa until August 24th, and now they all saw each other again at the G20 summit in New Delhi. There have never been as many summit meetings as today – and never have they been so pointless.

Twelve summit meetings without results

Since India has taken over the presidency of the G20, the member states have met at ministerial level a total of twelve times. And every time during these nine months they parted without a common final protocol. Even before the summit of heads of state in New Delhi, it was clear that it would end without an agreement.

Summit meetings of all kinds are now only about prestige politics and no longer about substantive issues. As host, the Modi government basks in the spotlight as a new political and economic world power – but clearly does not attach any importance to solving international problems. US President Joe Biden wanted to use the meeting in New Delhi, as was already clear, to put a further damper on China. Because head of state and party leader Xi didn’t even come, everything focused on the new friendship between India and the USA. A point victory for Biden, but nothing more.

Bernd Ziesemer was editor-in-chief of the “Handelsblatt”. In the “Déjà-vu” column, he takes up strategies, problems and plans from the economy every month – and examines them all the way back to the past

Solutions in the Ukraine war: none

The summit meetings cannot contribute to resolving the most important international issue: ending Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. As long as the aggressor is at the negotiating table and has made it his mission to destroy his opponent, the only thing left is empty phrases like those at the last G20 summit in Bali. At that time, it was already celebrated as a victory in the West that “most” states condemned the war “in the strongest possible terms”, but not all of them.

A country like Russia, which has been guilty of the most serious war crimes for a year and a half now, has no place among civilized nations. A dictator like Vladimir Putin, who is threatened with immediate arrest in most G20 countries, turns every international encounter into a cronyism through his involvement. And yet it is not just the Chinese, but also the Saudis and some other G20 states that are ensuring that Russia continues to play on the big stage. The main role is no longer occupied by the coward Putin, who doesn’t dare leave the country, but by his cynical Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Only the NATO countries, Japan, South Korea, Australia and a few other pro-Western states position themselves clearly. The USA has not succeeded in sustainably expanding this circle of Ukraine supporters. When in doubt, most states in the “collective South” are closer to their economic jacket than their political pants. They pursue their own interests without considering the consequences of the war. Cheap Russian oil matters more than anything else.

For the EU countries and Germany, this means that in the end you can only rely on the states in the Ukraine coalition. All the nice words about the “multipolar world” can safely be forgotten when the going gets tough.