The G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting opens Tuesday in Italy, as part of a series of high-level gatherings ahead of a Leaders' Summit in October. Ministers from countries including China, Brazil, India and Turkey will discuss several key issues, including where to tax big multinationals.
Tuesday's meeting, which for the first time will include ministers of both foreign affairs and development, will focus on "global governance and multilateralism."
The official G20 website says that "the need to strengthen international cooperation" on areas as diverse as health, climate change and trade, will be "at the heart of debates" between member states.
Consensus on these issues may be hard to reach. Unlike the G7, where even like-minded democracies struggle to issue a decisive statement, the G20 includes countries that have prickly relationships, such as the US and China or France and Turkey.
The city of Bari in Southern Italy is welcoming #G20 Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Development.
— G20 Italy (@g20org) June 28, 2021
For the first time in the G20 history they will hold a joint session that will take place in Matera on 29 June. #G20Italy https://t.co/gyZLIL5LwA pic.twitter.com/TJj5hmJky6
One area of likely discord is a plan to tax multinationals, approved by the G7 meeting last month in the UK. Under the plan, the country that is home to the headquarters of a multinational will take the major share of the tax on profits. The system would mean that G7 countries take more than 60 percent of such tax revenues, while other, poorer countries where the multinationals also have operations, miss out.
The G7 proposal needs the backing of G20 countries but China, India, South Africa, Russia and others could well oppose the idea.
The plan will be put before the OECD this week for discussion by the 139 member states. The moment of truth is the meeting of the G20 finance ministers in Venice on July 9-10, which will pave the way for a final agreement by the end of the year.
G20 FMs Meet This Week. First in Person meet since 2019. EAM Jaishankar in Italy for the meet that will see attendence by other G20 FMs & a natural occasion for sideline bilaterals.
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) June 28, 2021
Italian Release on G20 FMs meet: pic.twitter.com/13k3tDTvAN
Final decisions, though, will only be made in October during the Leaders' Summit in Rome. For now, Foreign Ministers will focus on "People, Planet, Prosperity”, a slogan pushed by the Italian presidency, which intends to focus on "global food security" with the ultimate aim of reaching the "Zero Hunger goal by 2030." Discussions will also focus on post-Covid economic recovery.
Tomorrow, the ministers move to the coastal town of Brindisi to attend meetings with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD), an organisation set up to provide logistics to respond to future humanitarian and health crises. Lessons learned during the Covid-19 crisis will serve as examples to "strengthen" future responses and preparedness for similar crises.
The G20 is made up of 19 countries and the European Union. The 19 countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK, and the US.
