Extended list: Arab countries interested in joining G20
The G20 summit starts in Johannesburg on November 22. Due to the conflict between South Africa and the United States, the White House is still intrigued about whether the country will be represented at the summit. Washington's refusal to participate may undermine the importance of this platform. At the same time, countries in other regions, in particular the Arab League, are showing increasing interest in the G20, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Marat Berdyev told Izvestia. According to him, the consolidation of the G20 and BRICS would also give a positive impetus to international economic diplomacy.
Why do Arab countries want to join the G20
The Arab League is interested in joining the G20, and Russia, in turn, encourages such steps, Marat Berdyev, the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large for the G20, APEC and the BEP, told Izvestia.
— We are registering a surge of interest in the Group of Twenty from integration associations. In particular, such signals have been repeatedly received through the League of Arab States. Russia has traditionally and systematically advocated strengthening the role of multilateral associations consolidating representatives of the Global South in the "twenty" negotiation processes," the diplomat said.
The League of Arab States (LAS) intergovernmental Organization was established on March 22, 1945. Currently, it operates in the format of summits where key regional issues are discussed.
The league consists of 22 States: Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Qatar, Comoros, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, UAE, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia.
Such influential associations, including countries with developed economies, can enhance the credibility and representativeness of the forum, Berdyev believes. First of all, we are talking about non-Western structures. In addition to the Arab League, the diplomat named the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (CELAC) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
— A positive impetus to international economic diplomacy would be given by the consolidation of the G20 and BRICS, based on the already established contacts of the G20 with the NBR (the New Development Bank is a financial institution established by the BRICS countries. — Izvestia), — he added.
Indeed, the LAG has quite a serious economic weight in the world. According to the ESCWA (UN) report, the combined economies of Arab countries account for approximately 5% of global GDP. They account for about a quarter of the world's oil reserves and more than 20% of global gas exports, and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait are among the richest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita.
The G20 format is interesting to the League for a number of reasons. First of all, this is an opportunity for the Arab East to participate more widely in global cooperation, both politically and economically, orientalist Leonid Tsukanov told Izvestia.
"This is an opportunity to strengthen ties with the G20 motors in Europe and Latin America, as well as expand an additional channel of interaction with Russia," the expert believes.
He recalled that Russia supports the Arab League's desire to join the format since 2024. Moreover, in 2023, another large association joined the work of the site - the African Union, which includes 55 countries of the southern continent. This event can be considered an epoch-making event, because it has made the G20 more representative and strengthened its status as a platform where an equal dialogue is conducted between the leading developing economies and the G7 countries, said Marat Berdyev.
— Such a development of events confirms the objective trend of strengthening multipolarity and the rise of a new center of power in international affairs. Given our long—standing strong friendly ties with the African continent, Russia has been one of the active supporters of this initiative," the diplomat noted.
Initially, the G20 platform was created to involve non-Western economies in solving global economic problems, Anton Bespalov, program director of the Valdai International Discussion Club, recalled in a conversation with Izvestia. However, during each summit, European countries, together with the United States, try to push their agenda. Thus, even if the Arab League is included in the forum, it is difficult to say for sure whether this will increase the credibility of the G20, because Western states will continue their policy of manipulating the other participants, the expert believes.
What will be discussed at the G20 summit
The G20 Leadership Summit will be held in Johannesburg on November 22-23. According to the President of the Republic of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, the main issues will be inequality in the world and ways to overcome it.
Three large sessions will be held within the framework of the summit. The first one will focus on ensuring sustainable global economic growth and trade issues in the Global South, South African Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Ronald Lamola said. At the second stage, participants will discuss disaster risk reduction, climate change, as well as food security and a fair energy transition. At the third session, they will talk about the problems of mining and trading minerals that are critical to the global economy and artificial intelligence issues. In addition, the G20 will host a meeting of the leaders of the member countries of the India, Brazil and South Africa Fund to help reduce poverty and hunger.
But very intriguing negotiations may take place behind closed doors. On Saturday, November 22, European leaders plan to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the U.S. peace plan for a settlement in Ukraine, the Financial Times reports. Trump's initiative and his scale of pressure on Ukraine have stunned the EU countries and their national security teams, the media write.
At the same time, it seems that the current summit will be one of the least high-profile in recent times, and it is unlikely that the fate of the Ukrainian conflict will be decided there. However, in previous years, this conflict was not the focus of G20 meetings. Meanwhile, this topic was not completely avoided at the summits, as well as other international conflicts, including, for example, the war in Gaza.
The absence of the leaders of key countries, however, calls into question the success of the summit. Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will definitely not come. Maxim Oreshkin, Deputy head of the Presidential Administration, flew from Russia to South Africa for the meeting. The United States was originally supposed to be represented by Vice President J. D. Vance, but later Trump said that none of the representatives of the States would go to Johannesburg.
Prior to that, the American president called the holding of the summit in South Africa a disgrace, drawing attention to the oppression of the rights of the white population, which, in his opinion, is being subjected to violence. Recall that in February 2025, Trump signed a decree freezing any aid to South Africa due to the fact that the country passed a law on the seizure of agricultural land from Afrikaners (descendants of white colonists) without any compensation.
However, South Africa received a note from Washington the day before, which suggests that the United States may still change its mind and take part in the summit. "This is a very positive sign. I repeat that the boycott policy has never worked. The United States should be here, and we are currently studying this," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
The US refusal to participate in the G20 leaders' summit casts doubt on its future as a platform for coordinating global initiatives, the Financial Times newspaper writes, citing European diplomats complaining that without Washington, Europe will not be able to achieve anything on the sidelines of the summit. One way or another, the site's importance has been declining in recent years. The growing disagreements between the members of this structure are to blame for everything, Leonid Tsukanov noted. These include the Ukrainian crisis or the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Now, the aggravation of the situation around Venezuela and the US tariff wars have been added to this.
"A full—fledged relaunch of the format in the near future is most likely not worth expecting, since the main disagreements between representatives of different regions in the group are still unresolved," the expert explained.
At the same time, the G20 remains important for Russia, the Kremlin said.
"This is a much more representative format in terms of discussing global economic issues,— Dmitry Peskov said.
Indeed, the platform is of considerable importance for Moscow and its diplomatic interests, as it remains a place for dialogue between Western and non-Western countries, Anton Bespalov noted.
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