Australia recently completed the first year of its two-year term on the United Nations Security Council. Meanwhile, on Dec. 1, Australia assumed the presidency of the Group of 20, which will meet in Brisbane this year. As in the difference between form and class, Australia's membership on the Security Council is temporary while that on the G-20 is permanent.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott wants the Brisbane summit to focus on "removing the international impediments to trade, jobs and growth" (The Australian, Dec. 2). This misses two key features about the G-20: how it reflects the changing geopolitics and the resulting need to move beyond economics as its sole remit.
Given Australia's unique G-20 geopolitical identity as a Western nation on the edge of Asia, Canberra should show more entrepreneurial leadership for a body that brings together prime ministers and presidents, not just finance ministers, of all countries with clout.
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