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OpinionAsia Opinion
Anthony Rowley
Macroscope
Anthony Rowley

As US leadership proves unreliable, Asia needs to start focusing on itself

Asian policymakers should start laying the groundwork for a new organisation that has this region’s interests at its core

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A miniature model of the White House is seen at the Omni Grove Park Hotel during the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, on August 31. Finance leaders from the G20 major economies opened talks at the US-hosted gathering, with the Trump administration seeking to escalate economic pressure on Iran amid a renewed exchange of fire with Tehran. Photo: AFP
Anthony Rowley
Anthony Rowley is a veteran journalist specialising in Asian economic and financial affairs.
The Group of 20 (G20) was launched in 1999 amid high hopes that Asia and other emerging regions of the world would gain a stronger voice in global economic and financial affairs. Things have not worked out that way.

Instead, a world order led by the United States stumbled into the 2008 global financial crisis and appears to be on course for another one. This suggests there could be an opening for a new regional organisation – one that is more centred on China or Japan and which can bring the political, economic and financial stability the US under President Donald Trump is unable to provide.

By the time the G20 was launched, the post-war Group of Seven (G7) nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US – had become increasingly unrepresentative of the global economy. Emerging economies wanted representation, and they appeared to get it in the form of a G20 whose membership includes the likes of India, China and Australia. The world has moved on, though, and US leadership of the G7 has proved unreliable and erratic under Trump.

This seemed clear from the recent G20 pre-summit ministerial gathering in Asheville, North Carolina. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hosted the meeting, which ended in a lack of consensus. Nobel laureate economist and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz wrote in a subsequent commentary: “Bessent was supposed to be the member with the most credibility. But he has now squandered it with his recent, failed attempts to steer the bond and currency markets.”
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