Australia Readies for G20 Summit _ The Diplomat.pdf

Shirtfronting, traffic and terror worries, andgovernment spending excesses have dominatedAustralian media coverage in the lead-up to theG20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane. But Canberra has bigger plans for the most significantgathering of world leaders the nation has ever hosted, not least including the challenge of revivinga faltering global economy.

Despite being described as a stairway to heaven for international bureaucrats with its 69 officialrelated meetings, Australia has pledged to deliver tangible outcomes at this years gathering withits agenda of promoting stronger economic growth and employment outcomes and making theglobal economy more resilient to deal with future shocks.

Leaked documents have pointed to growing expenses for the event, including A$150,000($132,000) for a special conference table, despite Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbotts pledgeto rein in the frivolous plans of his predecessor.

Yet since assuming the G20 presidency in December 2013, the government has promoted thesignificance of the event for the worlds 12th biggest economy.

The G20 Summit will be the most significant meeting of world leaders Australia has ever hosted.With 4,000 international delegates and 3,000 media anticipated to attend, it will bring globalexposure to Brisbane in a way not experienced since the Commonwealth Games and World Expoof the 1980s, Abbott said in a statement.

With the G20 gathering representing more than 85 percent of global gross domestic product(GDP), 75 percent of global trade, and 65 percent of the worlds population, Abbott has stressedthe event will be more than a talkfest, with practical measures to remove internationalimpediments to trade, jobs and growth.

In February, G20 finance ministers and central bank governors pledged at a Sydney meeting tolift our collective GDP by more than 2 percent above the trajectory implied by current policiesover the coming five years, or effectively a 0.5 percent annual GDP gain, delivering a $2 trillionboost to the global economy.

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At a follow-up meeting in Cairns, Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey announced that the samegroup had delivered strategies that will achieve 1.8 percent of additional growth across the globaleconomy[making it] 90 percent of the way to meeting the 2 percent growth ambition we set atour Sydney meeting. Hockey said genuine measures had been put forward by all G20economies, with around 80 percent of the 1,000 measures announced being new.

Hockey also cited agreement on a Global Infrastructure Initiative to boost investment, alongwith new international tax rules, improved financial regulation and proposed reform of theInternational Monetary Fund, as well as a coordinated response to the Ebola epidemic. Othermeasures on the agenda for the November 15-16 Leaders Summit include cutting trade barriers,promoting competition, regulating the shadow banking sector, improving energy markets andcurbing corruption.

Traffic, Terror Warnings

While Beijing has reportedly encouraged residents to vacate ahead of the APEC summit to helpclear its polluted air, Brisbanes Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has called on the citys 2.2 millionresidents to stay and prevent the Queensland state capital from becoming a ghost town.

It is absolutely important to our city and its future that we do not have 3,000 journalists writingabout a ghost town. We do not want that, it would be bad news for Brisbane, for its tourism, forits retail, for a whole lot of other things into the future, Quirk said.

A public holiday has been declared for Brisbane on November 14 ahead of the start of the LeadersSummit, while the city government has launched music, dance and light shows to keep residentsentertained as part of the G20 Cultural Celebrations.

Despite police pledges to limit the events impact, parts of the city will be in lockdown mode,including Brisbane airspace, when U.S. President Barack Obamas Air Force One begins itsdescent into Brisbane airport. Obama reportedly will bring two planes and Russian PresidentVladimir Putin three among around 50 aircraft expected for the event, delaying flights at thenations third busiest airport, which plans to erect 13 kilometers of strengthened perimeterfencing.

The motorcades of the visiting G20 leaders are expected to block roads between the airport andcity venues such as South Bank, where the event is being held, while more than 6,000 policeguard key meeting areas.

However, Brisbanes Courier Mail has warned of plans by anarchists to lay siege to overtsymbols of capitalism, threatening waves of destruction against the event. Police reportedly arepreparing for the sort of violent scenes that broke out during the summit in Toronto in 2010when more than 1,100 people were arrested.

The daily newspaper has also cited warnings from spy agencies of a potential terrorist attackoutside the heavily protected lockdown zone, particularly given Australias role in the battleagainst ISIS in Iraq, although acknowledging there was still no known threat against the G20.

Abbott vs Putin

Australias prime minister attracted international controversy with his threat to shirt-front


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Putin over Russias role in the MH7 Malaysian Airlines tragedy, in which 38 Australians diedamong the 298 allegedly killed by Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists.

In an escalation of a war of words between the two nations, Abbott said: Im going to shirt-frontMr. Putin. I am going to be saying to Mr. Putin Australians were murdered. Therell be a lot oftough conversations with Russia and I suspect the conversation I have with Mr. Putin will be thetoughest conversation of all.

In Australia Rules football parlance, shirt-front is a charge aimed at knocking an opponent tothe ground. A Russian official responded by noting that Putin has a black-belt in judo comparedto Abbotts university boxing experience.

Despite speculation that Putin would be barred from the event, the Russian leader is still expectedto attend, notwithstanding the sanctions imposed on his country by other G20 members. Areported anti-Putin rally is planned for the first day of the summit.

The Abbott governments move to focus the G20 on economic matters has also led to criticismover such issues as climate change, with Obama reportedly planning to join other world leaders inpushing for global action, despite Australia and Canadas reluctance.

Concerns have also been raised over Argentinas debt default and Indias veto over a global tradedeal, while some commentators have suggested the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks shouldhave priority over the G20, given the TPPs potential to deliver a broader free trade zone spanning40 percent of world GDP.

However, analysts still believe the G20 event would prove worthwhile.

What should you expect from the Brisbane summit? Id answer that with one word: traffic. Itsgoing to be a complete lockdown and Id just go away if I were you, joked Matthew Goodman ofthe U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies at a recent Brisbane conference hosted bythe Australian Institute of International Affairs and the Lower Institute for International Policy.

Its a meeting that is a meeting like all meetings it will have some parts that are tedious, someparts that are not particularly productive, and then some things will hopefully come out of itbased on an agenda that Australia has teed up, he added.

But the point is these leaders sitting around a table and talking in the hallways and over dinnerand so forth, are having an opportunity to build habits of cooperation among them. These leadersare busy peoplebut they dont actually have the chance to talk to their peers once a year aboutimportant issues that matter to all of themand so thats why the G20 is still important,regardless of what it actually does.

You cant get President Obama to come all the way to a lovely place like Brisbane just because itsa lovely place there has to be something that comes out of it. For the United States, its growthand financial stability, at the essence, he said, citing subpar global growth, particularly inEurope.

Chinas Ye Yu of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies said Beijing saw the G20 asheading in the right direction with its global growth target and cooperation on financial issues.


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China takes the G20 very seriouslyfor example, in the 18th Party Congress document in 2012,the G20 was written into the document as a very important international platform. Thats themost important strategic document guiding the new leadership.China is [also] trying toincreasingly integrate the G20 into its strategic dialogue with the US and Europe, Yu said.

She noted that the Chinese leadership saw the G20 agenda as legitimizing its domestic growthstrategy, although targets for external trade balance and exchange rates were still sensitive areasfor Beijing.

Wonhyuk Lim of South Koreas Korea Development Institute cited the benefit for Australia:Theres an old diplomatic saying that if youre not at the table, youre on the menu. In 2010,when Seoul was the venue for the G20 summit, it was viewed as a coming of age celebration forKorea, finally being at the table.

The way it is structured, middle powers like Australia can play a very important role infacilitating and mediating among the members and making the whole enterprise work. Thatswhy its so important for Australia this year to host the G20, and why its in Australias nationalinterest as well as the global interest to make the G20 function well as a multilateral forum forinternational cooperation.

Asked if Brisbane would see any lasting benefit, Goodman responded: I wouldnt have highhopes for this to have a lasting benefitit will benefit Brisbane economically, but youre going tohave a lot of traffic and shutdowns and there will be a cost from that. It will highlight Australiasrole as a leader in a group like this, and that will have some lasting benefitbut if Abbott andPutin do have a shirt-front it could be quite memorable.

Anthony Fensom writes for The Diplomats Pacific Money section.


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Documents

Australia Readies for G20 Summit _ The Diplomat.pdf