G20 members grapple with splintering of world order

G20 leaders wrapping up a summit in South Africa on Sunday hailed multilateralism — even as they struggled to adapt to a changing world order beset by go-it-alone US policies, wars and deepening geopolitical rivalries.

- 

“Too many countries are retreating into geopolitical blocs or the battlegrounds of protectionism,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters. “We are not experiencing a transition, but a rupture.”

He and the other leaders at the summit — which was boycotted by the United States — held a searching discussion on how the G20 can survive in a fragmenting world.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, just before bringing the gavel down on the summit, that the meeting took place “at a crucial time, as calls around the world grow louder for progress on the imperatives of our time’

Despite challenges to international cooperation, he said a joint declaration by G20 leaders issued early in the meeting “reaffirms our renewed commitment to multilateral cooperation and our recognition that our shared goals outweigh our differences”