Brazil's G20 Summit produces broad declaration that is short on specifics

Rio de Janeiro: The summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in Rio de Janeiro produced a joint declaration on Monday that, while not totally endorsed by one of the group's members, succeeded in addressing most topics host Brazil had prioritised addressing -- both ongoing major wars, a global pact to fight hunger, taxation of the world's wealthiest people and changes to global governance.

Experts had doubted Brazil 's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva could convince assembled leaders to hammer out agreement given uncertainty about the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump and heightened global tensions amid the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Further dimming prospects of consensus, Argentina's negotiators challenged some of the draft language -- and ultimately refrained from endorsing the complete document.

"Although generic, it is a positive surprise for Brazil," said Thomas Traumann, an independent political consultant and former Brazilian minister. "There was a moment when there was risk of no declaration at all. Despite the caveats, it is a good result for Lula."

Condemnation of wars, calls for peace, but without casting blame Militant group Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel occurred one month after last year's G20 Summit. It was thus unclear how this year's statement might address Israel's campaign of retaliation, which has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials, and more than 3,500 people in Lebanon in Israel's offensive against Hezbollah, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

The G20 declaration referred to the "catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza and the escalation in Lebanon", and stressed the urgent need to expand humanitarian assistance and reinforce protection of civilians.

"Affirming the Palestinian right to self-determination, we reiterate our unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-State solution where Israel and a Palestinian State live side by side in peace," it said.

But it made no mention of Israel's suffering or some 100 hostages that remain in Hamas captivity. Israel isn't a G20 member.

That lack of acknowledgment appeared to run contrary to US President Joe Biden's consistent backing of Israel's right to defend itself.

Looming large was news of Biden's decision to ease restrictions on Ukraine's use of longer-range US missiles to allow that country to strike more deeply inside Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is the summit's most notable absentee. The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant that obliges member states to arrest him, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attended instead.

The G20 declaration highlighted the human suffering in Ukraine while calling for peace but without naming Russia.

"The declaration avoids pointing the finger at the culprits," said Paulo Velasco, an international relations professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. "That is, it doesn't make any critical mention of Israel or Russia, but it highlights the dramatic humanitarian situations in both cases."

In working group meetings in the run-up to the G20, ministers and negotiators discussed Brazil's proposal to tax billionaires' incomes by 2 per cent.

At the start of the leaders' afternoon session, Lula reiterated his call for the tax.

That made it into the final declaration but there had been considerable doubt it would. One official from Brazil and one from another G20 nation say Argentine negotiators most vehemently opposed the clause -- which they had previously accepted, in July -- and another promoting gender equality.

In the end, Argentina signed the G20 declaration while partially dissenting from certain aspects, it said in a statement on X. That included content related to the UN's previous 2030 sustainable development agenda that right-wing President Javier Milei has referred to as "a supranational programme of a socialist nature". It also objected to the regulation of hate speech on social media, action by global institutions like the UN that the libertarian president has criticised as infringement on national sovereignty, and the idea that increased state intervention is the way to fight hunger.

Much of the declaration focuses on the eradication of hunger -- a priority for Lula.

Brazil's government previously stressed that Lula's launch of the global alliance against hunger and poverty on Monday was as important as the final declaration. As of Monday, 82 nations had signed onto the plan, Brazil's government said.

A demonstration Sunday on Rio's Copacabana beach featured 733 empty plates spread across the sand to represent the 733 million people who went hungry in 2023, according to United Nations data, and called on leaders to take action.

Viviana Santiago, a director at Oxfam, an anti-poverty nonprofit, praised Brazil for using its G20 presidency "to respond to people's demands worldwide to tackle extreme inequality, hunger and climate breakdown, and particularly for rallying action on taxing the super-rich".

Leaders pledged to work for "transformative reform" of the UN Security Council.

"We call for an enlarged Security Council composition that improves the representation of the underrepresented and unrepresented regions and groups, such as Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean," the declaration said.