{"id":281180,"date":"2024-11-25T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=281180"},"modified":"2024-11-24T05:06:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T05:06:20","slug":"g20-knocks-out-g7-agendas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/11\/g20-knocks-out-g7-agendas\/","title":{"rendered":"G20 Knocks Out G7 Agendas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Xi Jinping and Lula in Rio at the G20 mtg.\u00a0 Photo Credit: The Cradle<\/p><\/div>\n

This G20 in Rio was all about the power of the Global South, with poverty eradication and genuine economic progress trumping the old G7 agendas of war, profit, and arm-twisting.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

22 Nov 2024 <\/em>– The G20 summit in Rio earlier this week offered the quite intriguing spectacle of a deeply divided world, geopolitically and geoeconomically, trying to put on a brave \u2018holiday in the sun\u2019 face.<\/p>\n

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There was plenty of fluff to amuse attentive audiences. French President Emmanuel Macron surrounded by a beefy security detail strolling on Copacabana beach near midnight; European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen barefoot in the sand, stunned by the lapping waves; the White House lodger, US President Joe Biden \u2013 with his expiry date in less than two months \u2013 missing the G20 family pic because he was talking to a palm tree.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Right before the summit, Biden posed on a soundstage in the rainforest, complete with two giant teleprompters, pledging to save the Amazon just as his handlers in Washington let leak the \u201cauthorization\u201d for Ukraine to attack targets inside the Russian Federation with <\/span>ATACMS<\/span><\/a>; a qualified preamble for a possible WWIII.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With Rio providing the ultimately gorgeous set, at the very least, tempers at the renovated Museum of Modern Art, the G20 venue with the Sugarloaf in the background, were bound to mellow out. This even allowed for a short, tense handshake between Brazil\u2019s President <\/span>Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, a true leader of the Global South, and Argentina\u2019s President Javier Milei, a US asset who hates Lula\u2019s guts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

China steals the show<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The populist Brazilian head of state, whose political capital transcends all barriers, was, of course, an impeccable master of ceremonies, but the real star of the show was Chinese President Xi Jinping \u2013 fresh from his previous triumph, when he was for all practical purposes coronated King of Peru during the <\/span>Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima – complete with the <\/span>inauguration of the $1.3 billion port of Chancay, <\/span><\/a>the new South American node of the Pacific Maritime Silk Road.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As China is all about global connectivity corridors, Chancay-Shanghai became an instant new motto ringing all across the Global South.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beijing\u2019s prime role as an engine and cooperation propeller across Asia\u2013Pacific also applies to most of the G20 members. China is the largest trading partner of the 13 <\/span>APEC economies, and is responsible for 64.2 percent of Asia-Pacific\u2019s economic growth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This prime role extrapolates to China\u2019s BRICS colleagues among the G20, as well as brand-new BRICS partner-nations such as Indonesia and Turkiye. Compare that with the G7\/NATOstan contingent of the G20, starting with the United States, whose main global offerings range from Forever Wars and color revolutions to weaponizing of news and culture, trade wars, a tsunami of sanctions, and confiscation\/theft of assets. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, predictably, there was some serious underlying tension permeating the G20, especially when it came to the face-off between the G7 and the Russia-China strategic partnership. Russian President Vladimir Putin didn\u2019t even bother to attend, sending his uber-competent Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov instead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Beijing, after 7 years of combined Trump-Biden trade and tech war, the Chinese economy continues to grow by 5.2 percent a year. Exports now account for only 16 percent of China\u2019s GDP, so the economic powerhouse is far less vulnerable to foreign trade machinations. And the US share of that 16 percent is now only 15 percent; that is, trade with the US represents only 2.4 percent of Chinese GDP.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even under what can be described as NATOstan\u2019s all-out tech sanctions, Chinese tech firms are growing at warp speed. As a result, all western tech companies are in deep trouble: massive retrenchment, factory downsizes, and shutdowns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, China\u2019s trade surplus with the rest of the world has expanded to a record one trillion US dollars. That\u2019s what horrified Western economists qualify as China on a \u201ccollision course\u201d with some of the world\u2019s biggest \u2013 yet dwindling \u2013 economies.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Efforts to \u2018Ukrainize\u2019 the G20 agenda<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Brazilians had to dodge quite a few precision bullets to extract some success out of this G20 summit. US Think Tankland, on the eve of the summit, went on an all-out propaganda campaign, accusing BRICS nations of doing nothing but posture and complain. The G20, on the contrary, with \u201call major creditors on the table,\u201d might be able to redress \u201cfinancial grievances\u201d and development deficits.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Brazilians were clever enough to understand that an indebted NATO bloc exhibiting less than zero political leadership would do nothing under the G20 framework to redress \u201cfinancial grievances,\u201d not to mention contribute to \u201cenfranchise\u201d Global South nations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The only thing that would interest the Hegemon\u2019s financial elites out of a G20 meeting is to \u201cdeepen partnerships,\u201d a euphemism for further co-option and vassalization with an eye on 2026, when the US will host the G20. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

China, just like Brazil, had other ideas. Enter the campaign to fight hunger and poverty, officially launched in Rio. The <\/span>Global Times<\/span><\/i> has re-emphasized<\/a> how China \u201c<\/span>has lifted all 800 million people out of poverty and achieved the poverty reduction goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ahead of schedule.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In his G20 speech, Xi called all members to \u201c<\/span>make a fresh start from Rio,\u201d by practicing \u201cinclusive globalization\u201d and \u201c<\/span>true multilateralism.\u201d NATOstan, as every grain of sand in the Sahel desert knows, simply abhors multilateralism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The official theme of the Rio G20 was \u201cBuilding a Just World and a Sustainable Planet.\u201d The Hegemon\u2019s ruling classes, irrespective of who sits in the White House, are not interested in a \u201cjust world,\u201d only in maintaining unilateral privilege. As for \u201csustainable planet,\u201d it is code for what the Davos Gang wants: the toxic imbrication of interests of the UN, the World Economic Forum (WEF), and NATO.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The G7\/NATOstan did try by all means to hijack the agenda of the Rio G20, as confirmed by diplomatic sources. Yet the Brazilians stood firm in the defense of Global South-led multipolarity, negotiating a compromise agenda that, for all practical purposes, evaded getting deeper into the Hegemon’s latest Forever Wars, Ukraine and Gaza.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With NATOstan as a whole de facto supporting the Gaza genocide, the G20 85-point Final Declaration could, at best, offer a few consensual generalities, at least calling for a ceasefire in Gaza – which was promptly <\/span>vetoed by the US<\/span><\/a> at the UN Security Council immediately after the G20 summit’s conclusion. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lavrov, at his G20 press conference, offered some extra nuggets. He <\/span>said<\/span><\/a> that while the west did \u201ctry to ‘Ukrainize’ the G20 agenda, other members insisted that other conflicts be included in the final declaration \u2026 Those countries reluctantly agreed to discuss the points of the G20 final declaration on the Middle East [West Asia].\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Indonesia, India, Brazil, South Africa<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Lula\u2019s personal imprint at the G20 represented a Global South move: to establish an alliance against hunger, poverty, and social inequality, and at the same time impose extra taxation on the super-wealthy. The devil will be in the details, even as over 80 nations have already subscribed, plus the EU and the African Union (AU), along with several financial institutions and a series of NGOs.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The alliance should, in principle, benefit 500 million people up to 2030, including the expansion of quality school meals for over 150 million children. It remains to be seen, for instance, how the AU will make it happen in practice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, to a certain auspicious extent, the Rio G20 worked as a sort of complement to the\u00a0<\/span>BRICS summit in Kazan<\/span><\/a>, trying to pave the way towards an inclusive <\/span>multi-nodal<\/span><\/i> world framed by social justice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lula significantly stressed the key connection linking the latest G20s: the Global South – ranging from Indonesia, India, and now Brazil to South Africa, which will host the G20 next year, bringing \u201cperspectives that interest the vast majority of the world\u2019s population.\u201d Incidentally, that, right there, includes three BRICS and one BRICS partner.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On a personal level, it was quite an experience to observe the G20 fresh from a\u00a0<\/span>series of rich dialogues in South Africa itself<\/span><\/a>, centered on the construction of African unity in a multipolar world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa reiterated it when he said in Rio that this passing of the baton from Brazil is the \u201cconcrete expression of the historical, economic, social and cultural links that unite Latin America and Africa.\u201d And unite, hopefully, the whole Global Majority.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pepe Escobar, born in Brazil, is a correspondent and editor-at-large at <\/em>Asia Times and<\/em> columnist for<\/em> Consortium News and<\/em> Strategic Culture in Moscow. Since the mid-1980s he\u2019s lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Singapore, and Bangkok. He has extensively covered Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia to China, Iran, Iraq and the wider Middle East. He is the author of <\/em>Globalistan<\/a> (2007),<\/em> Red Zone Blues<\/a> (2007), <\/em>Obama Does Globalistan<\/a> (2009), <\/em>Empire of Chaos<\/a> (2014) and <\/em>2030<\/a> (2015), all by Nimble Books. Pepe was contributing editor to <\/em>The Empire and The Crescent and<\/em> Tutto in Vendita in Italy and is also associated with the Paris-based European Academy of Geopolitics. When not on the road he lives between Paris and Bangkok. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thecradle.co<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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