G20 Los Cabos Summit : New Dimensions of Collaboration

The paper presents an analysis of the G20 Los Cabos summit outcomes. The author explores three dimensions. The first part of the paper assesses the balance of national interests of the presidency and the interests of Mexico’s G20 partners in the summit agenda; the balance of continuity and innovation in the agenda. It then moves over to the analysis of organization of engagement with G20 partners, third countries, international and regional organizations, civil society, business community, thinks tanks and academic institutions in the run up to the summit and over the course of the leaders’ meeting. The third part contemplates on the quality of global functions implementation, with a focus on consistency of commitments implementation and transparency of the outcomes. The relevance of these three dimensions for the G20 effectiveness and legitimacy defined their choice for assessment. The summit proved to be a success. Attainments and setbacks are registered on each of the evaluated dimensions. The presidency has managed to strike a balance of national interests and the interests of Mexico’s G20 partners in the summit agenda, also balancing continuity and innovation in the agenda. Mexico has included its key priorities into the summit deliberations. However, on green growth no breakthrough decisions have been made. On tourism, disaster management, financial literacy and inclusion the declaration includes several direction setting statements, but there are practically no commitments made. Manifest strengths of the presidency include active engagement of the presidency engagement with the international organizations, integration into the G20 process of new formats, such as the meetings of ministers of trade and ministers of tourism; international financial architecture working group recommendations; promotion of Mexican presidency priorities in numerous international forums; integration of Latin American countries into the consultations; creation of space and opportunities for the leaders bilateral meetings in the summit. However, substantial expertise potential of international organizations has been underutilized. G20 has not been able to fully process and respond to the materials and recommendations. Proposals from the experts’ community and the civil society have not been reflected in the summit documents. The Los Cabos documents analysis allows conclude that in terms of global governance functions the summit discourse was the most balanced in the G20 history. Implementation of commitments was a primary concern. Another step was made towards creating G20 accountability mechanisms. The author asserts that the work should be carried forward under the Russian presidency of G20. The publication is prepared within the framework of a joint project "Enhancing Effectiveness of Russia’s Participation in G8, G20 and BRICS in Compliance with the Russian Federation National Priorities in Global Governance and Developing Recommendations for the Russian Presidency of G20 in 2013" implementing by Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and International Organisations Research Institute (IORI) of the National Research University “Higher School of Economics” in 2012