Backgrounder: G20 and its summits

The 17th Group of 20 (G20) Summit is going to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday in Bali, Indonesia.

The summit, themed "Recover Together, Recover Stronger," will focus on global economic recovery, global health architecture, digital transformation, sustainable energy transition and climate change, among other topics.

The summit will be held in person this year after being held virtually in 2020 with Saudi Arabia as the chair, and both online and offline in 2021 with Italy as the chair.

Here is a brief introduction of the group and its summits.

Created in 1999, the G20 is a main forum for international cooperation on financial and economic issues. It comprises 19 countries plus the European Union. The member countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Türkiye, Britain, and the United States.

The group, home to almost two-thirds of the world's population, accounts for about 86 percent of the gross world product and 75 percent of global trade.

In 2008, against the backdrop of the global financial crisis, the meetings of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors were raised to the level of heads of state and government for better crisis coordination, with the first summit being held in Washington, D.C. in the same year.

As an informal forum, the G20 does not have an administrative council or permanent body. Instead, G20 countries take turns to assume the presidency and host the summit.

Altogether, a total of 16 G20 summits have been held since 2008. G20 leaders met twice in London and Pittsburgh in 2009, and Toronto and Seoul in 2010. From 2011 to 2019, the summits have been held once a year in the following places: Cannes, Los Cabos, St. Petersburg, Brisbane, Antalya, Hangzhou, Hamburg, Buenos Aires and Osaka.

Tackling economic recessions, regulating international financial markets, combating tax evasion, and boosting development policy have been some of the main topics of these summits.