The G20, the club of countries with the largest economies in the world, separates its members into groups to ensure greater variety in the process of selecting the next presidency.
There are five groups distributed among members. Brazil, which assumed the presidency of the G20 on December 1, 2023, is part of group 3, alongside Argentina and Mexico.
The countries present in each of the five groups are divided, in general, by regional criteria. Only two deviate from this division: group 1, formed by Australia, Canada, the United States and Saudi Arabia, and group 2, with India, Russia, South Africa and Turkey.
All groups have a membership limit of four countries.
The division between groups is used to define the bloc’s presidency. Each group has a turn to assume the annual presidency of the G20.
After the event is held in one group’s country, the presidency is passed on to another, who decides internally who will take the lead.
All countries in the current group are eligible for the bloc’s presidency. Negotiation and consensus among members is the criteria for selecting who will host the next G20 summit.
Despite the numerical division, history shows that there is no sequential pattern between the groups. In 2023, the presidency was group 2 – held in India. In 2025, the group will host the summit again, this time in South Africa.
The last time group 3 assumed the presidency of the G20 was in 2018, when Argentina took the lead of the bloc, given that Mexico had already been host in 2012 and due to Brazil’s refusal to assume leadership of the bloc.
The G20 summit is an annual meeting of the world’s 20 largest economies. This year, the meeting will take place in Rio de Janeiro, on the 18th and 19th of November.
