C. Uday Bhaskar

Opinion | From G20 to Apec, great-power obstinacy is strangling plans for economic recovery

Recent summits suggest the US and its allies will be in an extended tussle soon with the China-Russia partnership – an impasse that will hit geo-economic agendas across the world and doom the climate fight

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US President Joe Biden walks with Chinese President Xi Jinping before their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit on November 14 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. Photo: AP

C. Uday Bhaskar

Published: 3:30am, 28 Nov 2022

Notwithstanding its raison d’être of “economic cooperation”, the 21-member Apec grouping released a statement after its recent Bangkok summit that highlighted the prevailing geopolitical tensions that have led to destruction, displacements and disruptions across the world.

This is in keeping with the discordant sentiment that animated the Group of 20 summit held in Bali just days before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

While the focus of the G20 summit was overshadowed by the first in-person meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, and the thorny US-China relationship, the anxiety about the war in Ukraine was palpable in Bali, where in a rare show of solidarity, Moscow was cautioned to exercise nuclear restraint.

This censure was agreed in the joint statement despite the divergent political, strategic and security orientations of the members of the G20. There were varying views about how Moscow was to be held culpable for launching the war in Ukraine and this dissonance was noted in Bali. Apart from the host Indonesia, major nations that have not hectored Moscow in public include China and India.

This pattern was also evident at the Apec summit, as attendees deftly navigated the contentious Ukraine war issue.

The Apec statement noted that, “Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy”. But it also added that there are “other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions” – a reference to China, among others.