It was hoped that the leaders at the G20 summit in Turkey would find a way out of the global slowdown in growth, but the events in Paris left them little time for that.
C.P.CHANDRASEKHAR
Meeting over November 15-16 at Antalya, Turkey, just 500 kilometres from the Syrian border, the leaders of the G20 summit found their agenda derailed by the horrendous events in Paris on November 13. The tasks of combating terror, of identifying and blocking terrorist financing and of preventing the flow of terrorists (including those moving as refugees) replaced the challenge of ensuring a global recovery from a seven-year long recession as their principal concern. This despite the fact that the summit chaired by host Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was expected to “focus on the current state of the global economy, sustainable growth, development and climate change, investment, trade and energy.”
From its inception the G20 was a formation that was motivated by and focused on economic issues. It was established in 1999, in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, as a meeting of Finance Ministers and graduated to being a Summit of Leaders in 2008 after the global financial crisis.According to the factsheet on the G20 website: “G20 leaders have met nine times since 2008, continuing to focus on achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth, promoting job creation and financial regulations that reduce risks and prevent future financial crises and modernising international financial architecture.”
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