The Patriot Post® · 'Things Are Tough All Over'

If this year’s G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, has a theme, it would be “Things Are Tough All Over.” The annual meeting of the world’s most powerful economies — 19 nations and the European Union — exhibited a level of discord and urgency rarely seen since it first met in 2008.

Most of the countries represented at the summit are in a recession or about to enter one. The International Monetary Fund is predicting global economic growth at a paltry 2.7% in 2023, with 31 of 72 economies expecting two consecutive quarters of falling output this year or next. A Wall Street Journal survey of economists found that the probability of a recession in the U.S. is at 63%, with the EU and the UK also falling into recession in the coming months.

This grim outlook has led to belt-tightening across all the economies represented at the summit. Each nation is pursuing its own plan to combat inflation and economic uncertainty. This raises the potential for an uncoordinated response to the global slowdown that could make the path ahead more painful and longer than any of the summit attendees might hope.

The global economic slowdown has a few causes. The world economy’s bounce back from the 2020 pandemic has been tenuous, especially for the developing world and less stable economies that do not have plentiful resources or diversified portfolios. China’s zero-tolerance policy in combatting COVID, the virus it unleashed on the world in late 2019, has caused that nation’s economy to falter, with effects rippling throughout the industrialized world. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has upended global energy and grain markets with canceled international shipments, embargoes against Russia, and that country’s retaliation against said embargoes.

The war turned out to also be a major issue of concern at the summit. Many of the leaders present haggled to produce a declaration that condemns Russia’s invasion and sets forth a plan to bring an end to hostilities that have worsened the world economy. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke virtually about a 10-point peace plan that includes a full Russian withdrawal from Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who appeared in place of President Vladimir Putin, said that the West was attempting to politicize the summit and accused Zelensky of prolonging the conflict. Lavrov made some news of his own when stories circulated that he was hospitalized prior to the summit’s opening meeting for an undisclosed health emergency. The Russian government immediately denied the story.

The other major issue of contention was U.S.-China relations, which have been strained in the months following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August trip to Taiwan. President Joe Biden met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for three hours before the start of the summit to discuss Taiwan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and thorny diplomatic and economic relations between the U.S. and China.

Biden and his team were quite optimistic that it was a productive meeting, claiming that Xi gave no impression that he would invade Taiwan. Unfortunately, there is no reason to be confident in that assessment given Biden’s dreadful mismanagement of affairs with China and his continued refusal to press the Chinese leader about his country’s role in spreading the COVID pandemic.

How the U.S. handles China and leads, or chooses not to lead, the response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine looms large over whether the summit will amount to much. The G20 — which accounts for 80% of the world’s gross domestic product and 60% of its population — already has a dubious reputation as a group of elites out of touch with the people they lead. Biden’s feckless foreign policy and appearance as an addled leader doesn’t inspire any confidence at home or abroad that things will improve anytime soon.