IntelBrief: G-20 Summit Reveals Deep Geopolitical Divisions and Increasing Competition

Bottom Line Up Front

• The recently concluded Group of Twenty (G-20) summit in New Delhi, India, exposed some deep geopolitical divisions among the world’s most advanced economies, while also demonstrating trends of increased competition, a focus on nationalism, and a retreat from globalism.
• While there was progress on issues like global debt, digital technologies in the Global South, and financing to the world’s most vulnerable nations impacted by climate change, much of the focus was on China’s absence and what that portends for hurdles to cooperation on major global challenges.
• At the G-20 summit in New Delhi, President Biden and other world leaders announced the formation of a new rail and shipping corridor intended to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), although the project was short on details and there are clear geopolitical hurdles to navigate and sort through.
• Countries from the Global South featured more prominently as the African Union (AU) was welcomed into the G-20, and, according to many analysts, developing countries enjoyed a far stronger voice than ever before, with issues directly related to them getting much greater attention than during previous summits.