After an opaque summit, China and the US want to work together again. That might not be good news for the world

CANBERRA: (May 16) Back in 2005, US economist Fred Bergsten coined the term Group of 2 or G2, proposing a stronger partnership between what are now the worlds two largest economies the United States and China.

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis a few years later, economic cooperation between these two countries briefly seemed to attest to the success of efforts at integrating China into a liberal rules-based order.

To be sure, the ostensible G2 was not meant to replace the larger, formalised G20 group of major economies, so much as strengthen it.