49 Fun Facts About G20

Which Canadian finance minister, later prime minister, was chosen as the G20's first chairman in 1999?

Paul Martin was a driving force behind the group, and as prime minister he proposed that it meet at leaders' level, a step the 2008 financial crisis finally forced.

Alongside finance ministers, which officials make up the G20's finance track that prepares each leaders' summit?

Central bank governors and finance ministers were the whole G20 at first: they began meeting in 1999 in answer to the financial crises of 1997-99, nine years before the leaders joined them.

In which US city did George W. Bush convene the first G20 leaders' summit in November 2008?

Washington, D.C. hosted because the 2008 financial crisis had outgrown finance ministers: George W. Bush invited the leaders themselves for the first time, and they met in the National Building Museum.

Which country was the first non-G8 nation to host a G20 leaders' summit, in November 2010?

South Korea used its turn to put poorer countries' growth on the leaders' agenda: the summit endorsed the Seoul Development Consensus, a plan for narrowing the development gap.

Which regional bloc joined the G20 as its newest member at the September 2023 summit chaired by Narendra Modi?

The African Union was the first member added since the G20 formed in 1999, giving a continent that had only South Africa at the table a seat for all its states.

Which European country is invited to every G20 summit as a permanent guest despite never having been a member?

Spain has been a 'permanent guest' at every G20 summit since 2008, and its economy outweighs those of full members such as Argentina and South Africa.

What share of gross world product do the G20's member countries produce?

Around 85% of gross world product comes from G20 members because the group was built in 1999 to seat rising economies such as China, India and Brazil beside the G7.

Which three-member grouping of the past, present and next presidencies keeps G20 work continuous between hosts?

Troika is the Russian word for a sleigh drawn by three horses abreast, apt for a club with no permanent staff: the last, current and next hosts pull together so work survives each handover.

What title names the personal representative who prepares a summit for each G20 leader?

Sherpa borrows the name of the Himalayan people famed for guiding climbers, because these aides do the heavy lifting that gets each leader to the summit.

Which 2009 summit declared the G20 'the premier forum for our international economic cooperation'?

Pittsburgh was the second choice: the summit was first planned for New York City beside the UN General Assembly, then moved to show off a steel town that had rebuilt its economy.

Which German city hosted the G20's inaugural finance ministers' meeting in December 1999?

Berlin's meeting answered the financial crises of 1997-99: the G7's finance ministers proposed a wider table, and it stayed a ministers' forum until leaders first met in 2008.

Which G20 member boycotted the 2025 leaders' summit in South Africa, the first held on African soil?

The United States stayed away on Donald Trump's orders: he called it a 'total disgrace' that the summit was held there, repeating discredited claims that white farmers were being persecuted.

Which US Treasury secretary, later president of Harvard, co-conceived the G20 with his Canadian counterpart after the 1990s emerging-market crises?

Larry Summers and his Canadian counterpart saw the 1998 collapse of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management as proof the G7 alone could not keep global finance stable.

By one scholar's account, which official, later Obama's first Treasury secretary, went down a list choosing the G20's members?

Tim Geithner, then a Treasury deputy, is said to have gone down the list with his German opposite number: 'Canada in, Portugal out, South Africa in, Nigeria and Egypt out.'

Which European country attended the first four summits as a guest before the 2010 hosts dropped it as over-represented?

The Netherlands lost its place to Singapore after an organiser said 'a certain region had been over-represented': western Europe already held four of the national seats.

With no permanent secretariat, the G20 leans on which Paris-based body for data and policy advice?

The OECD has advised the G20 since 2009 and sits in on its summits and finance meetings, because each year's host sets up only a temporary secretariat for its own term.

Which French president proposed in 2010 that the G20 get a permanent secretariat of its own?

Nicolas Sarkozy's idea drew support from Brazil and China but opposition from Italy and Japan, and the 2010 hosts countered with a 'cyber secretariat'.

The G20 was founded with only 19 countries; which bloc filled the twentieth seat?

The European Union took the twentieth seat, so Germany, France and Italy are represented twice: once by their own leaders and once by the heads of the EU's institutions.

Which British prime minister chaired the April 2009 London summit at the ExCeL centre, the second leaders' meeting?

Gordon Brown's summit opened under a French threat to walk out unless it agreed stricter financial rules, and ended with a $1.1 trillion programme to revive the world economy.

Which Italian prime minister did the Queen rebuke for shouting to catch Barack Obama's eye at a 2009 summit photo?

Silvio Berlusconi bellowed 'Mr Obama!' as a group photo broke up at Buckingham Palace, and the Queen was reported to have asked: 'Why does he have to shout?'

Which Basel-based body did the G20 create in 2009 to replace a similarly named 'Forum' as global banking watchdog?

The Financial Stability Board replaced the Financial Stability Forum so that major emerging economies could join standard-setting, and it is hosted alongside the Bank for International Settlements.

Which city's June 2010 summit media centre was mocked for a $57,000 artificial lake?

Toronto's 'fake lake' was an indoor pool built to show off Ontario's lake country to visiting reporters, and the summit's security cordon even drove a Blue Jays home series out of town to Philadelphia.

From the 2019 G20 summit in Japan, Donald Trump tweeted an invitation to which leader to meet at the Korean DMZ?

Kim Jong-un took up the offer, and a day later Donald Trump stepped over the border line with him, the first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea.

Which French Riviera resort hosted the 2011 summit, when G20 leaders switched from meeting twice a year to once?

Cannes began the calmer rhythm: leaders had met twice a year while the financial crisis raged, and agreed to drop to one summit a year from France's turn.

Which Baja California Sur resort hosted the June 2012 summit chaired by Mexico's Felipe Calderón?

Los Cabos saw Calderón hail a top-up of the IMF's funds made, he said, without US money for the first time, 'which reflects the importance of emerging markets'.

Which Russian city, Vladimir Putin's hometown, hosted the 2013 G20 summit that was dominated by arguments over Syria?

Saint Petersburg's summit, held in the Constantine Palace, ended without agreement on Syria: Barack Obama sought backing for military strikes that Vladimir Putin opposed.

Which Australian city took a public holiday for its 2014 summit, for which 16 bombproof limousines were hired?

Brisbane's AU$1.8 million fleet of Mercedes S-Guard cars was not needed by everyone, since Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin planned to bring their own vehicles.

Which Canadian prime minister told Vladimir Putin 'You need to get out of Ukraine' at a 2014 leaders' retreat?

Stephen Harper prefaced it with 'I guess I'll shake your hand', and a Russian spokesman said Putin replied: 'That's impossible because we are not there.'

Which Turkish resort province on the Mediterranean hosted the 2015 summit, held two days after the Paris attacks?

Antalya's Regnum Carya golf resort in Belek saw the leaders add a declaration on fighting terrorism to their pre-planned communiqué.

Which Chinese city, home of Alibaba, hosted the 2016 summit where Barack Obama and Xi Jinping announced Paris Agreement ratification?

Hangzhou gave the Paris Agreement a push on the eve of the summit: the two leaders' countries formally joined together, and Barack Obama said history would judge the day 'pivotal'.

Which film director staged the welcoming gala for the leaders at the 2016 G20 summit in China?

Zhang Yimou was the natural choice: he had directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and he set the leaders' gala on the waters of West Lake.

Which German port city's 2017 summit saw rioters loot shops and burn cars in its Schanzenviertel district?

Hamburg's summit also split on climate, with every leader but Donald Trump agreeing to treat the Paris accord as irreversible; 144 rioters were arrested on the final Sunday.

Which NAFTA replacement did Trump, Trudeau and Peña Nieto sign hours before the 2018 G20 summit formally opened?

USMCA was signed that morning for a reason: it was Enrique Peña Nieto's last full day as Mexico's president, and his successor took office the next day.

Which city hosted the first G20 leaders' summit in South America, in November 2018?

Buenos Aires closed with a truce: Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed there to postpone planned tariff increases while their negotiators tried to end the trade war.

Which Japanese city's 2019 summit produced a 'Blue Ocean Vision' to cut new marine plastic pollution to zero by 2050?

Osaka's leaders shared the vision at Japan's first G20 as host and endorsed a framework under which each country reports the steps it takes against marine plastic litter.

Which capital was the scheduled host of the 2020 summit that was instead held entirely by video because of COVID-19?

Riyadh's hosts had practice: King Salman chaired an emergency G20 video summit that March, where leaders said they were injecting over $5 trillion into the world economy.

Which Italian prime minister chaired the 2021 Rome summit and passed the gavel to Joko Widodo?

Mario Draghi, the former central banker who vowed to do 'whatever it takes' to save the euro, hosted in person while Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin joined only by video link.

Which EU country gave up its defence of a 12.5% corporate tax rate to join the G20-backed 15% global minimum in 2021?

Ireland signed up only once the words 'at least' were struck from 'at least 15%', and it kept its 12.5% rate for firms with revenues under 750 million euros.

A G20 scheme launched in 2020 offered 73 of the world's poorest countries a pause on what during the pandemic?

Debt repayments worth $12.9 billion were suspended between May 2020 and December 2021, so that the countries taking part could spend the money on fighting the pandemic.

Which Russian official stood in for Vladimir Putin at both the 2022 and 2023 G20 leaders' summits?

Sergey Lavrov left the 2022 summit on its first day, and so many leaders refused to be photographed with him that there was no official group photo that year.

The India-to-Europe trade corridor unveiled at the 2023 G20 summit is widely seen as an answer to which Chinese project?

The Belt and Road Initiative runs its sea lane through the Suez Canal; the new corridor, IMEC, would bypass it, shipping goods from India to the Gulf and on by rail towards Europe.

Which English rendering of the Sanskrit motto 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' headlined India's 2023 G20 presidency?

'One Earth, One Family, One Future' framed a presidency that pushed Global South concerns such as debt restructuring and climate finance onto the agenda.

Which Indian city ordered schools, offices and markets shut for three days while it hosted the 2023 G20 summit?

New Delhi also took on its monkeys: officials put up life-size cut-outs of langurs along the leaders' routes to scare off the smaller macaques that roam the city.

Which Brazilian president used the 2024 Rio de Janeiro summit to launch a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty?

Lula da Silva was returning to his signature cause: Fome Zero, 'Zero Hunger', was the flagship social programme he launched on first taking office in 2003.

Which city hosted the first G20 summit held in Africa, under the theme 'Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability'?

Johannesburg went without Vladimir Putin for a legal reason: he faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, which South Africa, as a member of the court, would be obliged to act on.

Which Florida city was named host of the December 2026 G20 summit, at a golf resort owned by the host president?

Miami's Trump National Doral had been here before: Donald Trump chose it for the 2020 G7, then dropped the plan two days later after bipartisan criticism that he would profit.

A missile landing in which country sent G7 and NATO leaders into an emergency huddle on the 2022 summit's second day?

Poland's blast killed two people in a border village and raised fears of a Russian strike on NATO soil, but it proved to be a stray Ukrainian air-defence missile.

Which Indonesian island hosted the 2022 summit, motto 'Recover Together, Recover Stronger', at a Nusa Dua resort?

Bali's hosts had planned a morning of mangrove planting for the leaders, and it started late while G7 and NATO leaders held an emergency meeting.

Which leader addressed the 2022 G20 summit by video and pointedly called his audience the 'G19'?

Volodymyr Zelenskyy's 'G19' left out Russia, and he used the speech to set out a 10-point peace plan that began with nuclear safety and demanded Moscow withdraw all its troops.