Eser Şekercioğlu is a visiting scholar at the Center for Policy Studies at Sabanci University in Istanbul.

The Pittsburgh Summit, to my surprise, has generated more media coverage and attention in the major Turkish media outlets than both the London Summit and the G8 Summit in Italy. Unlike the previous summits, media coverage was not limited to narrow news strips. Both before and after the summit several high-profile columnists mentioned the G20 Summit. A few major newspapers even analyzed and reported on the resulting 23-page long Leaders’ Statement. Perhaps the reason for this increased attention is the lack of a more urgent and immediate international crisis and/or event. In London both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Turkish media were preoccupied with President Barack Obama’s imminent visit to Turkey and the impending NATO Summit. This time in Pittsburgh the G20 Summit was much higher on the foreign issues hierarchy and hence the increased media coverage. Some interpretations were fairly romantic, like the over-optimistic evaluations of the London Summit. There was a tendency to overestimate the importance of the Leaders’ Statement and the implications of the quota shifts in the IMF. Still, as far as the Turkish public’s responses are concerned this summit was followed far more attentively.

Economic Interests

Turkey’s main economic interest, or more accurately Turkey’s main economic expectation from the G20 framework, was, in fact, indirect. Turkey’s history with the IMF and the possibility of a new stand-by or similar agreement means that the primary goal is to clarify the relationship with the IMF. The G20 meeting’s importance lies in the expectation that in the wake of the global economic crisis major economies sounded willing to modify the financing and administration of the IMF and World Bank funds. A secondary expectation from the G20 would be the overall approach to the management of global economy and whether the preferences of the G20 group would benefit Turkish economy’s export sectors. With this prioritization in mind, it is safe to argue that the Pittsburgh Summit was quite fruitful.

Items 19, 20 and 21 in the Leaders’ Statement, namely, the announcement that the G20 will be “the premier forum for our international economic cooperation” and the new commitments on the financing of the IMF and the World Bank funds addressed Turkey’s economic interests to a certain extent. This fact did not escape the radar of the Turkish commentaries in the mainstream media. Several columnists declared that Turkey returned from the summit with tangible benefits.  Most pundits focused on the implications of item 19 of the Leaders’ Statement and emphasized that the G20 has become more than an appeasement for the non-G8 economies who had been complaining about the exclusive nature of the G8. The Turkish media, which focused on the general implications of the London Summit and was somewhat distanced towards the practical implications of the G20 meetings welcomed the Pittsburgh Summit in a more perceptive way. Thus the announcement that the G20 is to become the primary vehicle of international economics was also perceived to be more than just words.

Political Interests

As with the London Summit, there was little expectation that Prime Minister Erdoğan could play an important role in the actual processions of the meetings. In that regard, the Turkish public and media are quite realistic. Since there is little direct political capital to be transferred from the summit to the domestic front, little could have happened in the first place. And since there were no other major international events — the previous summit in London was within a week of Barack Obama’s visit to Turkey and the NATO Summit — Prime Minister Erdoğan presented a relatively low profile. Still, his short conversation with Barack Obama and their subsequent meeting after the summit naturally made their way into the news. It is possible to argue that the location and the timing of the summit was particularly advantageous for Prime Minister Erdoğan allowing him to arrange a meeting with the president of the United States with little fanfare and expectations. Again, this is only a remotely G20-related benefit, but still the fact that the Turkish prime minister is now regularly situated in this leading group is bound to have secondary benefits.

International Interests

For the leaders of the larger economies like the US, Germany and Japan, the connection between their activities during the processions and their roles as international leaders is more straightforward. Since their preferences inevitably carry more weight, they also could assume credit for the results and global implications of the G20 summits. For smaller economies such connections are more subtle and less well pronounced. That said, Turkey’s role in the emerging global geopolitical order is perceived more clearly after the Pittsburgh Summit than the London Summit for two reasons. First of all, the announcement that the G20 will become the primary forum for economic cooperation means that even smaller members of the group will take part in the decision-making process and such a role will not be overshadowed by the ghost of an upcoming G8 meeting. Second, the changes made in structure to the IMF means that some non-G8 countries, including Turkey and China, will now have more weight in the institution’s decision-making processes. Since Turkey is one of the most faithful beneficiaries of the IMF, a shift in the power structure is more than welcome whether or not it means additional funds are made available. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the Pittsburgh Summit addressed Turkey’s international interests far better than the London Summit. While the London Summit summarized the wishful expectations with no or very little actual benefits for Turkey, the Pittsburgh Summit provided some tangible and intangible international benefits for Turkey.

Global Leadership 

Unlike the London Summit which offered a glimmer of hope, albeit through abstract and vague resolutions, for the crisis-stricken economies, the Pittsburgh Summit offered little crisis-specific messages for the Turkish audience. At least this is the way almost all pundits perceived and interpreted the summit. Despite quite a few decisions that will lead to concrete steps to be taken in the coming months and years, the Turkish public did not evaluate the Pittsburgh round through the global crisis prism. Whatever global leadership capital is gained, it is gained through the three items of the Leaders’ Statement mentioned above. Item 19 announced that the G20 will become the primary medium of international economic cooperation, and items 20 and 21 announced the changes introduced to the IMF and the World Bank, respectively.