In the history of G20 summits, the risk of not agreeing on a common declaration was publicly reported before the 2018 summit in Argentina. That summit took place amidst sharp disagreements between West and South over trade and migration. But even then, the declaration was ultimately agreed upon, albeit on the lowest denominator. Vladimir Putin said at the time that the declaration’s text was very “rounded”. The second time there was a risk of not agreeing on a common declaration was in 2022 in Indonesia, due to the Ukrainian conflict. But then, apparently to avoid disrupting the process, Russia ultimately agreed to final language that, on the one hand, stated that all countries adhered to their positions on Ukraine, but, on the other hand, included phrases which were, to put it mildly, unflattering for Russia, which, as noted in the declaration, were shared by many G20 members.
Returning to the summit in South Africa, we note that while a year ago in Brazil the fight against hunger was the primary focus, this time the South African presidency has placed the issue of inequality and ways to overcome it at the centre of attention.
In what has become an extremely rare example for G20 declarations, it now reflects, albeit in the most general form, shared value principles. We previously noted that, unlike the BRICS declarations on the one hand, and the G7 declarations on the other, the G20 texts contained virtually no mention of values. Clearly, the differences in approaches between developed and developing countries made this virtually impossible. Now, the first point of the South African declaration states that “solidarity, equality, and sustainability” are “key pillars of inclusive growth”.
It’s also worth noting that in the Russian translation of the declaration, published on the Kremlin website, the text of this phrase contains a semantic difference from the English original. In the Kremlin translation, instead of “sustainability”, it says “sustainable development”, which is far from the same thing. While sustainable development is traditionally understood as a focus on combating climate change, “sustainability” in international documents is a much broader concept, referring primarily not so much to climate as to resilience to the full range of negative impacts. Furthermore, these three value principles have been reordered in the Russian translation. While the English original lists solidarity first, followed by equality – which, again, reflects the key emphasis of the South African presidency – and sustainability third, the Russian translation on the Kremlin website for some reason places sustainable development first, followed by solidarity and then equality. It’s worth noting that this semantic difference in wording between the English and Russian texts of both the G20 and BRICS declarations is not isolated. We previously addressed this topic in our aforementioned report on BRICS values.
In addition to this value principle, the South African G20 declaration draws a connection to the spirit of the African philosophy of Ubuntu, which states that individual countries cannot flourish alone. Clearly, this reference could be interpreted simply as a courtesy to the host country and the fact that the G20 summit was being held in Africa for the first time. However, it is yet another value principle enshrined in the G20 documents. This, again, was previously extremely rare.
Overall, the South African declaration is slightly more emotionally charged than the “average” G20 declaration, which was previously semantically formulated in a very neutral and detached manner, often amounting to little more than a collection of abstract good wishes. This emotional engagement undoubtedly sets the South African declaration apart from others. It’s worth recalling, in this regard, that the BRICS declarations during the South African presidency were also semantically charged and critical of the problem of inequality in the world, which made them stand out even from the general BRICS context.
The Valdai Discussion Club was established in 2004. It is named after Lake Valdai, which is located close to Veliky Novgorod, where the Club’s first meeting took place.
Please visit the firm link to site
