But he was clearly keener on listening to some of them than others. Had the chancellor not been on a plane on his way across the Atlantic, he would have joined a walkout by the UK delegation - led by the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey - when Russia's representative started speaking at a gathering of the G20. The protest by the Brits - along with the Americans and the Canadians - at a forum that includes the leading developed and developing economies won't make the slightest difference to the Kremlin. For all that, it is a symbolic gesture that matters. The International Monetary Fund issued a warning last week about the risk of the war accelerating the fragmentation of the world into rival economic blocs, and here was an example. China made it clear Russia should not be excluded from G20 meetings, as did the country currently in the chair: Indonesia.
The IMF is worried about the risk of a return to the 1930s. It fears the trend towards deglobalisation will result in trade barriers, countries adopting their own technological standards - and rival reserve currencies emerging to challenge the supremacy of the US dollar. Bad all round, in other words.
Greater international cooperation is a good thing. There are global problems that need global solutions, as the IMF's managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, rightly noted last week.
This story is from the April 29, 2022 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the April 29, 2022 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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