The 2022 G20 summit happened in Bali, Indonesia, from November 15th to the 16th. Indonesia’s G20 presidency started on December 1st, 2021, until the summit. The presidency’s handing over ceremony took place at a small event that saw the Gavel of The G20 presidency transferred from Mario Draghi, the Italian Prime Minister, to Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s President when The Rome summit ended.
The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically affected Bali’s economy, which is highly dependent on tourism. Therefore, people viewed the meeting as an occurrence that would help restore tourism levels to their levels before the pandemic. Its main venue was the Apurva Kempinski Hotel. The others were The Nusa Dua Convention Center, which acted as the media center, and The Sofitel Bali Nusa Dua Beach Resort, which hosted The Spouse Program. The mangrove planting session took place at Ngurah Rai Grand Forest Park, while the traditional performances and the gala dinner were held at The Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park.
All member states attended the event, with guests including Inoke Kubuabola from Fiji, Mark Rutte, the Prime Minister of The Netherlands, Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president, Macky Sall, Senegal’s president, the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, the Foreign Minister of Suriname, Albert Ramdin, the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president. Other notable guests were Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, and Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund.
Some main contentions that led to the meeting included the attendance of Russian president Vladimir Putin, with several member states demanding that Russia be removed from the group. Others threatened a boycott if Putin were to attend. Putin later said he would not be attending, sending his Foreign Affairs Minister.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, agreed that Russia should not be using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Another issue discussed was the Indonesia Just Energy Transition Partnership aimed at decarbonizing Indonesia’s economy which currently relies on coal.
