Russia – G20 Multilateral Meetings & Declaration: Analysis  

The G20 annual summit has concluded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with Russia attending with Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, the United States, the African Union and the European Union.

The Russian delegation was led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, with the G20 economies calling for “comprehensive” ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, while also stressing the need for cooperation on climate change, poverty reduction, and taxing the ultrarich. The economic forum met in Rio de Janeiro on Monday as leaders sought to shore up multilateral consensus on issues of concern amid heightened global tensions and United States President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January. A declaration was adopted with a consensus among all leaders of the G20 economies and can be viewed here.

Russia – G20 Trade Analysis

We provide a brief bilateral trade breakdown of Russia’s bilateral trade volumes with other G20 members as follows:

Summary

The G20 declaration was interestingly short of criticism of Russia, concentrating instead on conflicts involving Israel, and mentioning the Ukraine conflict only in terms of maintaining a peace under conditions involving the UN Charter. Otherwise it concentrated on global issues, such as its own sustainable development goals, food security, humanitarian issues, international tax cooperation, a proposed tax on billionaires, regional equalities, financial aid via the World Bank and IMF, the WHO, energy transitions, climate change, bio-diversity, United Nations reform, WTO reform, and A.I.

Much of this has been heard before, although the calls for reform at the WTO and United Nations are becoming more globally insistent. These echoed very similar opinions at the APEC meetings in Lima. 

More obvious by its absence was any reference to the Ukraine conflict, nor any apparent snubs to the Russian Foreign Minister. The overreaching attitude was one of global reform – an issue that fits in well with Russia’s global agenda. Whatever is going on behind the scenes – and the United States, European Union and United Kingdom were all present along with Russia – the global consensus appears to be moving away from Ukraine and sanctions and towards reformation of all global architecture.

South Africa will take over the presidency of the G20 in 2025.

Further Reading

G20 Countries Interested In Joining BRICS New Development Bank