As Summit Starts, Emerging Nations Weigh New Clout
Brazil, China, India Step Up In Diplomatic Power Shift

By Anthony Faiola and Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, November 15, 2008; A01

When world leaders gathered last night for a White House dinner on the eve of a major economic summit, the faces around the table were not just those of the Europeans and Japanese who normally mix in the highest circles of diplomacy. This time, heads of state from the across the developing world, from China to Brazil to India, had a seat at the table.

Their inclusion in this weekend's talks on the global financial crisis marks a historic power shift. The summit is being seen as a model of what high-level diplomacy will look like in the future, with emerging giants gaining a voice in a club that long included only the richest of nations. But at a time when China maintains the world's largest cash reserves and the United States is going deep into debt, the definition of rich has changed.

Leaders from developing countries -- which are expected to account for nearly 100 percent of global growth next year as developed countries fall into recession -- now see an opportunity to broaden their clout. At the summit today, they will push for more influence in the International Monetary Fund as well as the other institutions that are charged with maintaining global economic stability, but that still remain largely controlled by Europe, the United States and Japan.

Developing countries will also seek to cement their inclusion in global decision-making, pressing for entry into organizations such as the Switzerland-based Financial Stability Forum, which brings together developed world regulators, central bankers and financial officials.

Analysts say the shift toward global inclusion underscores how the financial crisis crippling the developed world has provided emerging giants -- which are relatively healthier -- with a chance to assert themselves.

"We must use the crisis as an opportunity to correct things that were wrong before the crisis and strengthen multilateral bodies, because in a globalized world we need serious and representative forums to take global decisions," Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told reporters this week. Lula dismissed the modern relevance of the Group of Eight, an organization of seven developed countries plus Russia, that might have been called on to deliberate on the crisis in another era.

"We need to have other countries and other continents for more democratic, more plural decisions," Lula said.

With new clout, some say, comes new responsibilities. In an interview yesterday, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso called on nations such as China to offer up some of their vast reserves to the IMF, which has been charged with bailing out a number of countries in recent weeks. With the economic crisis deepening, he said, the IMF would need more than the roughly $200 billion in its war chest to help troubled nations.

Japan would offer as much as $100 billion more, he said, but other countries with deep pockets should fulfill their responsibilities.

"It doesn't have to be Japan alone that would provide such funds," Aso said. "Oil-producing countries, China and other countries that have ample reserves could also make their contributions."

Aso also showed reluctance to quickly cede voting power in organizations such as the IMF. "I don't think it's something that should be achieved today or tomorrow," he said. "I believe that needs to be worked out over time."

Still, most nations, including the United States, have acknowledged that a new world order has emerged and that the developing world should have a larger say in international organizations.

Support for that notion, analysts say, was underscored by the way in which this weekend's summit came together. Pressed to convene a gathering of world leaders to address the crisis, President Bush eschewed the G-8, and called instead on the broader "Group of 20" nations -- which includes countries such as Argentina, Saudi Arabia and South Africa -- to deliberate this weekend.

"We share a determination to fix the problems that led to this turmoil," Bush said at the White House dinner last night. "We share a conviction that by working together, we can restore the global economy to the path of long-term prosperity."

At the summit, leaders are seeking consensus on how to combat a global recession and create a road map for broader reform of the world's financial system. In the summit communique, which was being finalized last night, the leaders are expected to agree on the root causes of the crisis and to back the creation of a "college of supervisors" to examine the inner-workings of the world's 30 biggest financial institutions. They are also expected to express support for countries seeking to use fiscal stimulus to bolster their economies.

The leaders plan to set up working groups to examine such issues as overhauling international financial institutions and harmonizing accounting rules across borders. They will also issue a plea to maintain free and open trade as well as aid to developing countries. Officials will take a stab at a few more touchy issues, such as establishing global guidelines for executive pay at financial companies.

The communique is expected to be parsed in the language of diplomacy and to relegate the details to lower-level diplomats to work out in coming weeks and months. The heads of state would regroup in early spring for a follow-up summit.

The summit takes place as the world is on the cusp of a global recession. Officials in the 15 eurozone countries announced yesterday that the region had officially fallen into recession. Overall, developed economies are projected to contract by 0.1 percent in 2009, while the developing world will grow by 4.5 percent, according to new estimates released by the World Bank.

With developing countries gaining a foothold in the global economy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted this week that the IMF in particular be overhauled. The developed world must be given "more possibilities to wield influence," Merkel told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. "That will happen at the expense of industrialized countries, but that is how it goes."

The summit, analysts say, is likely to plant the seed for the creation of a new grouping of nations -- bigger than the G-8, but perhaps not as broad as the G-20 -- that will be called to meet regularly over financial and diplomatic issues of global importance.

Canada has floated an alternative idea to simply turn the G-20 into an annual head-of-government meeting called the L20 ("L" would stand for "leaders"). Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, has supported that proposal.

"In terms of balancing the crisis, in terms of finding a way out of this global crisis, heads of states and heads of governments, maybe we can talk about a change," he said yesterday at the National Press Club.

One advantage to the inclusion of developing nations, the leaders argue, is that they can fight for their own interests. This weekend, officials from developing nations are insisting that rich countries keep their promises to give foreign aid to the poorest nations despite problems at home.

The summit has become the target for protesters with a hodgepodge of messages, some only tangentially related to the event. In Lafayette Park, across from the White House, only a handful of supporters showed up last night, and police forced the organizers to remove trays of food they had brought to feed the homeless while Bush was hosting the G-20 leaders.

"At the summit, they are talking about redesigning capitalism because it's not working. We want to show that you don't need capitalism to survive, as long as people help each other," said Sam Palmer, 16, a student from Arlington who helped cook the food.

The protesters have planned further demonstrations for today, including a carnival in Murrow Park at 18th and H Streets NW, and a forum on economic issues in a church several blocks away. No demonstrators are expected to be allowed near the summit site in the National Building Museum.

Staff writer Pamela Constable contributed to this report.