For the average Australian, "Bali summit" might sound like a euphemism for a surfing getaway with the opportunity to sink a couple of Bintangs on the beach.
But there's a rather large diplomatic summit kicking off on the Indonesian island today, with the world's most influential leaders gathering to discuss some of the biggest challenges facing the globe.
Is Australia going to the G20 summit?
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, on the second leg of a three-summit tour through South-East Asia, will be among those leaders.
"This is a time of great global uncertainty. We have rising inflation due to energy prices, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine," he said before jetting off.
"In addition to that, there's the global challenge of food security as well as climate change.
"We have strategic competition in the region, increased tension, and we want an Indo-Pacific that is peaceful, that is stable, and that is secure."
Which countries are members of the G20?
The G20 is the grouping of the most important economies in the world, and it's a mixture of countries considered to be "advanced" or "developing".
The membership is based on their relative heft on the world stage. And there are 20 of them, in case the name "G20" wasn't enough of a spoiler alert.
Alongside Australia, you've got:
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Canada
- China
- France
- Germany
- India
- Indonesia (this year's host)
- Italy
- Japan
- Mexico
- South Korea
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- South Africa
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
- United States
- European Union
So they're the big players economically, politically and strategically.
Spain is regularly invited, along with the United Nations, representatives of the African Union and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
"From Australia's perspective, this is our chance to be at the big table," Melissa Conley Tyler, honorary fellow at the Asia Institute of the University of Melbourne, said.
Are all the G20 leaders going? What about Vladimir Putin?
Well, all the countries will be represented. But not all the leaders will be in attendance.
For example, even though a number of presidents and prime ministers would be pretty keen to give Vladimir Putin a piece of their mind over the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian leader isn't showing up.
Instead, his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will be in Bali.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited to attend this year — and is expected to do so by video link from his war-torn country.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who's been pretty reluctant to do much travel since the COVID-19 pandemic hit his country and the world, will be there and is expected to meet US President Joe Biden.
The prospect of a meeting between Mr Albanese and Mr Xi is firming up. It would be the first proper meeting between an Australian leader and China's president since Scott Morrison managed a brief chat back in 2019.
Many leaders will have also attended the ASEAN and East Asia Summit in Cambodia prior to travelling to Indonesia, and will go on to attend the APEC Summit in Bangkok once the G20 wraps.
"These groupings are about trying to get multilateral cooperation in an environment where it's often difficult," Ms Conley Tyler said.
"It's particularly difficult because we have US-China competition on the one hand, and you have Russia-West competition on the other."
What's on the G20 agenda?
There's a bit going on around the world at the moment.
The invasion of Ukraine, associated global energy and food crises, tensions in the South China Sea, and the ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic (from a health and an economic perspective) will likely all feature in some way or another.
"Our order, regional and international order, has been facing various and serious challenges," Japan's ambassador to Australia, Yamagami Shingo, said.
"If you look at the situation in Ukraine, you know, if you look at the situation across the Taiwan Strait … this is high time for these leaders to come together, joining forces together in terms of upholding the rules-based international order, based upon universal values and international norms.
"Ukraine today could be tomorrow's East Asia — we can never allow that to take place in this region."
Any other notable invitees?
Beyond the rooms where the leaders sit around and thrash out various issues, there are dozens of side events where dignitaries meet.
There's the B20 – the "B" being for business. The new emperor of Twitter, Elon Musk will be in attendance there, alongside business barons from around the world.
Bill Gates also gets a guernsey for that event, alongside Australian industry leaders including representatives from the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Australian Industry Group.
Even Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway will attend the B20, albeit virtually, in her capacity as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations.
What about the other summits?
The G20 certainly garners the bulk of the attention, but it is sandwiched between two other notable meetings — the ASEAN and East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh and the APEC summit in Bangkok.
"APEC is 'Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation', and it's supposed to be more about the economics, it's a Pacific Rim meeting," Ms Conley Tyler said.
"Then you have G20 — that's a meeting of the biggest systemically important economies, and its job is supposed to be to deal with global crises, particularly financial and economic crises.
"And then if you think about East Asia Summit, that's the one that has more focus on the security aspects, on what are the key security issues that we have in the wider Indo-Pacific.
"That has a fascinating grouping as the ASEAN countries plus China, Japan, South Korea, plus India, Australia, New Zealand, and then you also have the US and Russia.
"So it's a really good grouping to discuss issues, but so far it probably hasn't made as much of its potential as it could."
