By: Lt Col JS Sodhi (Retd)

Hassan Rouhani’s quote “Global challenges require collective responses” is quite important as the worlds spotlight shifts to the G20 Summit on November 15-16, 2022 in Bali, Indonesia.

After the United Nations, the G20 is the second biggest alliance in the world as it comprises 19 nations and the European Union. The European Union consists of 27 nations, thus the G20 alliance has 46 nations as members.

The G20 countries constitute two-thirds of the world’s area, have 60% of the worlds population, conduct 77% of the international trade and contribute 80% of the worlds Gross World Product (GWP), thus making it a potent and a powerful alliance.

G20 was founded on September 26, 1999 with a four-fold aim to tackle issues of global economy, financial stability, climate change mitigation and sustainable development.

The G20 Summit in Bali is happening at a critical time when the Russia-Ukraine War is nearing its ninth-month having disrupted the global supply chains devastatingly, and the Covid-19 pandemic is on the wane having shattered the global economy. Thus, this G20 Summit is of immense global significance and the world has immense hope from the Bali Summit.

Attempts by the United Nations to end the Russia-Ukraine War have not been successful. The visit of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to Russia & Ukraine in the last week of April 2022 did not yield any success to end this war.

The world now looks upon the Bali G20 Summit in the hope that methods and means are found to end this war which has directly and indirectly affected every global citizen.

Also, as the world recovers from the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in every global citizen being affected directly, it is hoped that this G20 Summit finds solutions and systems to get the global economy back on track.

Since inception, the Bali G20 Summit is the most important G20 summit in view of the catastrophes the world is undergoing though presently. One very important outcome of the meeting between the US President Joe Biden and the Chinese President Xi Jinping on November 14, 2022 in Bali, a day before the G20 Summit officially begins, is that both the nations have condemned the Russian nuclear threats on Ukraine.

This positive statement coming from two powerful nations of the world, specially from China which is a close ally of Russia, can be taken as an auspicious beginning to the G20 Summit.

In case the G20 Summit is able to deliver the worlds expectations it will become a much powerful alliance and will save the world from further death and destruction.

As the world glare and gaze in on Bali for the next two days, Charles Kettering’s words “High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation” have a deep meaning for the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia.

About the Author

Lt Col JS Sodhi retired from the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army and is an alumnus of NDA, Khadakwasla and IIT Kanpur. He is a M.Tech in Structures has also done MBA and LLB and is a prolific writer and a public speaker. He features in the World Book of Records, London and the India Book of Records for his media work. He Tweets at @JassiSodhi24. The views expressed are personal. 

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