Rising Powers Convene in Osaka for G20: What’s the Scorecard?

Policy Alert #191 | July 2, 2019

On June 28-29, 2019, delegations from the member states of the Group of Twenty (G20) convened in Osaka, Japan, for their annual summit amidst heightened tensions between various members over tariffs, territorial disputes, accusations of meddling in domestic elections, and the United States’ unilateral efforts to dissolve the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran. Bilateral and multilateral meetings on the sidelines of the event included meetings of the BRICS bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), three corners of the Indo-Pacific Quad (India, Japan, and the United States), as well as much-anticipated bilateral meetings between China and the US, Russia and the US, and Russia and Japan. In this RPI Policy Alert, we review the Rising Powers’ scorecards from this year’s G20 Summit.

 

JAPAN

Japan served as host for this year’s G20 Summit, and notably opted to schedule the event ahead of the Group of Seven (G7) meeting that will convene in France later this year. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and US President Donald Trump met to reaffirm the “critical importance of their trilateral cooperation in efforts to maintain and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific region, sharing their understanding of an increasingly complex security situation” and express their support for the G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment, which appears to be motivated by criticism of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. In a separate meeting, Abe and Modi expressed their plans to schedule a 2+2 Ministerial Meeting to coordinate their efforts in improving regional connectivity through quality infrastructure and multilateral security and defense, including US-2. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono met with his Indian counterpart, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar for a strategic dialogue in which Kono expressed Japan’s expectation to conclude the stalled negotiations of the ASEAN Framework for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The meeting between Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin ended without a successful resolution to the territorial dispute between the two countries over the Kuril Islands

 

CHINA

In a speech at the summit, President Xi Jinping highlighted the dangers of protectionism directly and advocated for reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO): “The G20 should continue to take the lead in making the world economy open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all. We must strengthen the multilateral trading system and pursue WTO reform as necessary. The goal of the reform is to bring the WTO up to date and make it better able to deliver its mandate of enhancing market openness and boosting development, and the results should be conducive to upholding free trade and multilateralism and to narrowing the development gap.” President Xi and President Trump met on the sidelines of the summit and announced that the stalled trade negotiations between the two countries would resume. In a meeting between BRICS members, Xi reportedly called upon the bloc to “to firmly uphold multilateralism, safeguard the international order based on international law and the international system with the UN at its core, advocate extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and oppose illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction.” President Xi also had a meeting with Prime Minister Abe, in which he welcomed Japan’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative

 

INDIA

In a meeting with fellow BRICS leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the need for the bloc to promote multilaterialism, ensure energy security and stable prices of oil and gas, improve social and physical infrastructure to increase economic growth, ease restrictions on the movement for skilled workers between countries, and combat terrorism. Modi’s scheduled meeting with President Trump was complicated by the US leader’s eleventh-hour tweet criticizing Indian retaliatory tariffs

 

RUSSIA

At a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed their efforts to improve ties and highlighted Japan’s increased role in the Russian economy through trade and infrastructure improvement projects. Regarding the state of the territorial dispute between the two countries, Putin appeared optimistic that progress was being made: “[I]t is noteworthy that we have succeeded in making some progress in launching joint economic activity on the islands. We approved business models for two out of the five areas identified by Mr Abe and myself. A number of pilot projects are to be carried out in the near future.” In a meeting with fellow leaders from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) bloc, President Putin advocated the members pursue reform at the World Trade Organization rather than calling for its dismantling. In a trilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the “RIC” subgroup of the BRICS bloc, President Putin explained that their cooperation in the United Nations, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and G20 has been fruitful: “In a broader context, our cooperation in the RIC format could become a model for establishing an up-to-date, just and multipolar world order that rejects protectionism, the policy of unilateral actions and illegitimate sanctions.” President Putin also met with US President Donald Trump, in which the latter appeared to playfully joke about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US elections.

RPI acknowledges support from the MacArthur Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York for its activities.