G20 Summit 2017 has created worldwide attention with global leaders meeting and thousands gathering for protests. This annual summit gathers presidents and prime ministers from countries around the world which raises numerous questions on outcomes. However, we have realized that many people are just interested about protests more than the summit itself. After following some discussions, we have realized that many people are not aware of the purpose of the G20 Summit. We have gathered couple of questions in this article for you to extend your knowledge on the topic.
The most common questions on G20 Summit:
What is G20 Summit?
We all know, countries across the world still experience problems to adapt globalization process. Some have politic issues while others having legal issues to establish healthy integration into the global economy. Simply, G20 Summit is an assembly for leading economies to form a stable road map for every country. G20 was formed in the late 1990s with the expansion of G7 because of the Asian Financial Crisis. After Asian Financial Crisis, leading economic powers realized it’s impossible to leave Asia out of this union. Since then, Asian Countries have become much more important with their increasing populations and economies. In time, G20 Summit has turned into a highly critical event as its today.
As a result, G20 is a forum where powerful economies meet to find solutions on the raising concerns in the world. For example, G20 Summit 2017 topics include issues on climate change, free trade, and helping migrants and refugees. Usually the summit continues over a weekend and leaders hold bilateral discussions beyond the topics covered.
Which is the hosting Country? Which Countries attend G20 Summit?
Each year, there is a leader country determined for the event. The leader country hosts the annual summit and determines an agenda. There were numerous countries hosted the event in the past such as China, France, USA, and 2017 host is Germany. Attending countries are depending on their Annual GDPs, so each year it’s European Union and 19 most powerful economies. Since the start of G20, USA has always been the leading economy in the group. On the other hand, China has been the most developed economy with its ranking reaching 2nd place since.
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This year, CNN Politics have published an article presenting Annual G20 Summit Family Photo and numbered every leader. I sincerely loved the idea and wanted to share it with our readers giving credit to Meg Wagner and Sean O’Key, CNN. You can access article here.
The Name of the People in the Annual G20 Summit Family Photo
- President of France – Emmanuel Macron
- President of the United States – Donald Trump
- President of Indonesia – Joko Widodo
- President of Mexico – Enrique Peña Nieto
- President of South Africa – Jacob Zuma
- President of Argentina – Mauricio Macri
- Chancellor of Germany – Angela Merkel
- President of China – Xi Jinping
- President of Russia – Vladimir Putin
- President of Turkey – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
- President of Brazil – Michel Temer
- President of South Korea – Moon Jae-in
- President of Guinea – Alpha Condé
- Prime Minister of Italy – Paolo Gentiloni
- Prime Minister of Canada – Justin Trudeau
- Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi
- Prime Minister of Japan – Shinzō Abe
- Prime Minister of Australia – Malcolm Turnbull
- Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – Theresa May
- President of the European Council – Donald Tusk
- President of the European Commission – Jean-Claude Juncker
- General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Secretary – Angel Gurría
- Secretary-General of the United Nations – Antonio Guterres
- Director-General of the World Trade Organization – Roberto Azevêdo
- Prime Minister of Norway – Erna Solberg
- Director-General of the World Health Organization – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
- Prime Minister of the Netherlands – Mark Rutte
- International Monetary Fund chief – Christine Lagarde
- President of Senegal – Macky Sall
- Director-General of the International Labor Organization – Guy Ryder
- Prime Minister of Singapore – Lee Hsien Loong
- President of World Bank – Jim Yong Kim
- Prime Minister of Spain – Mariano Rajoy Brey
- Prime Minister of Vietnam – Nguyễn Xuân Phúc
- Chairman of the G20’s Financial Stability Board – Mark Carney
- State Minister of Saudi Arabia – Ibrahim Al-Assaf
What is the purpose of the annual G20?
As mentioned earlier, the purpose of G20 Summit is to address raising concerns in the world and figure out solutions. In the last decade, environmental issues such as global warming have been one of the top topics discussed. Therefore, economic issues and agreements on trade always top concerns. Especially after the world economy experience 2008 global crisis, prevention of a similar one has always been the primary concern.
Additionally, many leaders use this gathering to create opportunity to hold a meeting with desired leaders. For example, President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have held a meeting in G20 Summit 2017. This was their first meeting since US elections. Of course, the topic of their bilateral discussion was much different than general issues raised in the annual event.
Why do thousands of people protest?
First of all, I don’t think there is no possible way to make every people happy on earth at the day. Especially, increasing competition in the business world and raising requirements for workers cause inconvenience. Millions of people feel overwhelmed with the tough era capitalist markets created. Although I also believe there are big gaps, I still think capitalism is the right way.
Anyway, this is not our subject. What I am trying to explain is that there will always be people against the system. That’s why there is no possibility to hold an event like this without any protest. Unless you want to evacuate an entire town like China did last year. Moreover, there is an incline in the protests in G20-2017 mostly because of tension between Trump and Merkel. He isn’t very welcomed in European Union in general considering his attitude on different occasions during serving time. (Honestly, he wasn’t very charming even before he started his duty as a president.)
Thus, we have tried to cover all basics about the annual G20 Summit. In order to know more about what happened, don’t forget to check out G20 Summit Protests.
