UNAIR NEWS – G20 or Group of Twenty is an international forum focusing on coordinating the global economy and sustainable development. For the first time, Indonesia hosts the G20 Presidency in December 1, 2021 to November 30, 2022.
In this regard, a lecturer of International Relations of Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UNAIR I Gede Wahyu Wicaksana SIP MSi PhD shared his thought on Intellectual Talk Show “G20 Forum Indonesia as the Leader or the Host?” organized by Student Executive Board (BEM) of Faculty of Economics and Business UNAIR on Saturday, May 28, 2022, the lecturer shared the hidden stories behind G20 which rarely discussed in the official media or formal literatures.
“I don’t mean to spread pessimism, but critical thinking is the soul of university,” he claimed.
Forum representing the world’s circumstances
“G20 represents the world’s circumstances, but does not represent an institution that leads the world,” said Wahyu.
It can be viewed from the global economic asymmetries, whereas the G20 members consist of richest countries with the largest military strength and World best diplomatic capabilities, and middle-income countries with the largest poverty rates in the world. Besides, looking at the cultural aspect, the G20 also describes the modern world that can not only be homogeneously defined.
G20 Indonesia as the leader or just the host?
G20 is an intergovernmental forum representing the world’s circumstances. In other words, G20 is world leaders meeting instead of world leadership. “The decision will remain to be made by diplomacy based on the strength of each state,” said Wahyu.
“As of now, Indonesia does not have a clear foreign policy doctrine,” he added. It is proven by the goal of the President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo, to make Indonesia the world’s maritime axis, yet not concretely followed up with policies supporting it as the world maritime axis agenda has not been seen since 2019.
Besides, Wahyu also stated that the President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo has a principle to attend international meetings only if it benefits the Indonesian community.
However, he pointed out that this principle must be supported by clear foreign policies, such as non-aligned policy, joining one of the existing blocs, or creating their own bloc with countries proposing the same ideas.
G20 forum or G2 (US-China)?
Wahyu stated that we are currently facing the Second Cold War between US and China, which explicitly and implicitly compete against each other. Therefore, he considered that G20 discussion was merely an extension of the competition going on so far.
Author: Tristania Faisa Adam
Editor: Binti Q Masruroh
