The events throughout 2025 already make it clear that next year the international economic scene is likely to witness unexpected and perhaps unprecedented developments. One such twist in the high diplomatic circles involved the G20 format – next year the chairmanship is passed on to the United States that has already made it clear that it would not be inviting South Africa (a G20 founding member) and would replace it at the G20 summit with Poland[1]. With the traditional global formats in the current setup of global economic governance experiencing transformations and challenges, the question that many observers will be asking themselves in the years ahead is whether platforms such as the G20 are viable and indeed capable of adapting themselves to changing international conditions.
The fundamental problem that led to this G20 debacle is the lack of inclusivity and a flair of elitism/exclusivity that continues to characterize this international platform even after the admission of the African Union. If G20 membership is still largely about national economies that are considered to be among the global heavyweights, attempts to change the composition of the “select few” could well continue or even intensify. The way to imbue the G20 with greater stability and effectiveness is to create mechanisms that significantly broaden the group’s outreach and the circle of national economies as well as regional arrangements that can contribute to global economic development via this platform.
Admittedly, there are already important outreach mechanisms built into the G20 framework, such as its engagement groups that include the likes of T20 (think-tanks), Y20 (youth), L20 (labor), B20 (business) and others[2]. Another outreach mechanism was advanced by Singapore, namely the Global Governance Group (3G)[3]. The 3G platform is an informal group of small and medium-sized economies that seeks to channel the voice of its members into the G20 policy agenda and discussions. In 2025 the 3G group delivered its statement on the sidelines of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), in which it commended Brazil and South Africa as the G20 presidencies in 2024 and 2025 on conducting “deepened engagement between the G20, and the wider UN membership”[4].
Indeed, the 3G group could be one of the mechanisms through which a more extensive cooperation between the G20 and the broader international community could take place. In particular, just like the G20 accepted several regional integration blocs into its ranks, so too the 3G mechanism could bring into its fold such regional groups as ASEAN (Singapore as well as several other 3G economies are members of that regional arrangement) and Mercosur (Uruguay is a member). This could potentially establish the lines of communication between the G20 and the wider international community not only via national economies, but also regional integration blocs.
Another possibility for the G20 in building its outreach would be to strengthen its presence and activism in key international organizations. This pertains not only to the global organizations such as the World Bank, the IMF or the WTO, but also regional summits and forums. It is important to note in this respect the rising engagement between the G20 and the regional blocs, with South Africa as the G20 chair being invited to the ASEAN summit in 2025. For its part, South Africa as the G20 chair this year invited several representatives of regional integration blocs, including ASEAN, to the 2025 G20 summit.
The above proposals are just some of the possible steps that the G20 could implement to take its outreach and inclusivity to another level. And in our view this process will necessarily need to involve regional integration blocs, with one of the most promising formats being a separate engagement group within the G20 (a regional 20) that is composed of regional integration arrangements in which G20 economies are members[5]. Such an engagement group could work closely with other platforms such as the B20, C20, U20 as well as 3G in scaling and propagating international best practices and policy impulses across the global economy. Perhaps one of the greatest potentials for the G20 lies in scaling its initiatives across the global economy to a greater array of countries and regions as well as in increasing the interaction and the synergy across the many G20 engagement groups. The creation of a “regional 20” could serve to address precisely these high-potential trajectories of G20 development.
Perhaps most importantly, the development route that involves a greater role for the regional integration arrangements presents the G20 and the global community with a greater degree of optionality and maneuver. If the country-level diplomacy is increasingly ending up in gridlocks, there may then be alternative paths to maintaining lines of communication in economic diplomacy, including at the level of regional organizations. A platform for regional arrangements that is integrated into the G20 and that operates closely with international organizations such as the WTO would present a greater array of back up options in cases of diplomatic stalemate at the country level, while also delivering a critical degree of stability to the overall construct of global economic governance.
In the end, the path forward for the global community should be directed at expanding the array of development trajectories in the evolution of the global governance framework. Rather than clinging to an ossified structure of governance that is increasingly hard to sustain, new engagement groups, global organizations, development institutions need to emerge and allow for a broader engagement of such actors as regional integration arrangements, sub-national regions and municipalities as well as corporates (whether social enterprises, or large mainstream companies). For the G20 the response to the rising challenges and doubts in its future role should be addressed via broadening G20’s outreach to the international community and raising its inclusivity. And this time the scale of challenges calls for more innovative approaches from the international community.
[1] https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/lifestyle/us-replaces-south-africa-with-major-european-ally-for-2026-g20-summit/vv4en2m
[2] https://bricspolicycenter.org/en/meet-the-g20-engagement-groups/
[3] https://www.mfa.gov.sg/about-mfa/international-issues/small-states/
[4] https://dirco.gov.za/press-statement-by-the-global-governance-group-3g-on-its-eighteenth-ministerial-meeting-on-24-september-2025/
[5] https://brics-plus-analytics.org/connecting-g20-with-the-rest-of-the-world/
Yaroslav Lissovolik, Founder, BRICS+ Analytics
Image via G20 India: https://www.g20.in/en/about-g20/about-g20.html