It is the first time that an Arab leader, Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz, heads the G20 Summit that includes the United States, China and India, in addition, of course, to France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.
This summit was preceded by a virtual meeting between these countries’ Ministers of Finance and central bank governors. The reality is that this is the most important confrontation of the coronavirus ever since it started to horrifically spread across the earth.
It is known that Saudi Arabia now plays a distinguished and effective role in the world economy. Since the economy and politics stand on the same grounds, this Arab country has for several years now played a primary role in international and regional politics, and Riyadh has become an important political destination for world leaders.
The spread of the coronavirus and its infiltration of most, if not all, countries have led to economic confusion around the world and particularly in the US, alongside China, Japan, Russia and other leading European countries such as Italy and France. In this context, the Saudi King invited the G20, as an initiative where these twenty great countries issued these decisive decisions, whether in regards to confronting this evil that has invaded the entire world, or the economic situation that has been struck by devastating collapses from China in the Far East to the US leading to confusion and incapacity even in the Security Council and the G20 in the West.
Before the Saudi King’s invitation to the International Monetary Fund and all international political and economic bodies that were confused, some of which have collapsed, there was a need for this summit to address things during this critical and final moment. Consequently, an agreement was made to put in place a common plan that has immediately taken effect to confront this monstrous virus and its impact on world markets and the policies of countries that are considered great powers, whether in Asia, Europe, Africa and the US, countries that were never expected to be in such a situation days after COVID-19 crossed the seas and broke out in New York which hosts numerous international bodies, including the United Nations.
Perhaps what confirms that the G20 Summit which was called for and headed by the Saudi King indeed came as a rescue step and that its decisions were put to be executed immediately, whether to confront this pandemic or to address the economic situation that has entered the circle of collapse, including the United States, whose economy is considered the strongest and most stable in the world. President Donald Trump called for urgent measures to provide enormous financial support to many institutions and companies that had announced bankruptcy after the coronavirus reached New York and later spread within a few hours to other states.
It is necessary to realize that this universal battle against the virus has changed the post-World War II world into a new one. It is known that this world that has remained dominant since 1945 was a world of wars, confrontation and global conflicts, and a world of money, military power and decisions in the hands of those who had won the war. What is meant by this is the US and other countries that are referred to as the capitalist camp, alongside the Soviet Union before it collapsed, now led by Vladimir Putin who has renewed his own term to 2036.
This is an important matter indeed, even if another matter needs to be examined and seriously dealt with, that Trump is still holding onto the belief that the damned virus in Chinese and that the status of the G20 countries and their international roles are not to be undermined, and that like European countries that the coronavirus has invaded, it now temporarily controls them, including “Great Britain”, France, Germany, Italy and even Spain.
After the G20 Summit, it is not permissible for every country to work on its own. Cooperation is necessary, efforts need to be collective, and after everything that has happened, the US needs to let go of the idea that it is the only great power on this earth. Washington needs to understand that after this global war against this damned virus the world will be different from the old world, the post-world war world. The United Kingdom, for example, which was the greatest empire in history has shrunk down to the point where even its most elementary components are seeking independence. The truth is that it has been practicing this independence already.
The question is: How does the US president describe Corona as the “Chinese Virus” and then the very next day ask China to support the US in fighting this destructive evil that has infiltrated the US so much?
This means that especially after all of this strategic infiltration that Corona has achieved in the US, Trump needs to address China, whose support he is humbly asking for. The relationship between the G20 countries has become that of equals, with mutual respect and appreciation, far from any opportunist tendency the US president may still be holding onto, despite all that COVID-19 has done to New York and other US states.
Consequently, there has to be an adaptation to the new world, and for the G20 countries to act as equals, especially that the US is in dire need of China and other countries from the group. Beijing is clearly not in need of the US.
This means that there is a possibility, some even say it's inevitable, that just as there was a new formula after the First World War that dissolved the Ottoman Empire and other great empires and countries, and later the outcomes of the Second World War primarily put the United States in a temporary competition with the former Soviet Union, this global war with Corona will lead to a new formula led by China.
