Summits of Group of 20 nations invariably happen with at least one crisis burning, which shapes the discussions both in the meeting room and the one-on-one huddles in the hallways.
Leaders tend to gather around kindred spirits. Occasionally they gang up on one particular leader — think Russia’s president in 2014 (after the annexation of Crimea) or the Saudi Crown Prince in 2018 (after the murder of critic Jamal Khashoggi).
This week’s summit on the tropical Indonesian resort island of Bali will be anything but breezy. In fact it could be the trickiest G-20 gathering to date. It comes against the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine, plus increasingly confrontation between the US and China, and tensions over oil supply between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
