G20 summit in Saudi Arabia begins with a focus on mitigating the effects of the pandemic

The annual summit of G20 leaders began virtually on Saturday with a speech broadcast live by King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, the country that hosted the event as the group's rotating president.

"We have a duty to face this summit together and give a strong message of hope and calm by adopting measures to mitigate this crisis," the monarch said in his welcome message to the other leaders.

On Friday, the UN and the European Union put forward their proposals so that the members of the G20 can agree at their summit of leaders this weekend on how to seek a way out of the current crisis that is "inclusive and sustainable", calling for greater solidarity from the rich countries.

"We must move forward on two fronts: firstly, to recover in a way that is inclusive, secondly, to recover in a way that is sustainable, i.e. for everyone to redouble their action against climate change," said United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

For her part, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that during the summit, which will be held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic, she will stress to her G20 partners "the importance of maintaining economic support measures until recovery is completely on track".

Both the EU and the UN agreed with the proposal that had already been put forward by the Saudi government, which is organising the event in its capacity as the G20's rotating president, to look at how to lay "a solid foundation for strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth" at the meeting.
 

To this end, Guterres called for "solidarity" from the members of the G20, which is made up of industrialised and emerging nations: "We need concrete action now, especially for the most vulnerable.

Guterres said he would demand more input from G20 leaders for the COVAX platform, through which middle- and high-income countries can finance the poorest to also receive Covid-19 vaccines.

This instrument, he said, still needs $28 billion (about ?23.6 billion at current rates) more in funding, ?4.2 billion (about ?3.542 billion) by the end of the year.

The European Union also anticipated that it will propose to the G20 a greater effort to ensure that poor countries also have access to vaccines and treatments against covid.

"The goal is to buy 2 billion doses by the end of 2021 for low- and middle-income countries," said Von der Leyen.

The other instrument the G20 has used to help less developed countries since the pandemic broke out is debt relief, a measure extended for now until June 2021. However, Guterres called for an extension of the moratorium until the end of next year.

"We cannot let the covid pandemic lead to a debt pandemic," he warned.

A first extension of the debt moratorium, which initially covered only this year, was adopted last month by G20 finance ministers.

On sustainability, Von der Leyen said the fight against climate change remains at the top of the G20 agenda.

Protecting the environment and addressing "the alarming loss of biodiversity around the world" is "as important for our nature as it is for our health and our economies," Von der Leyen said.

Therefore, the President of the European Executive committed herself to taking on "a leadership role by example: focusing on the green and digital agenda".

Guterres, for her part, criticised the fact that the rescue packages approved by the G20 countries have given more financial support to fossil fuels than to clean energy, and asked them to make a much clearer commitment to combating climate change.

Another aspect on which both the UN and the European Union have agreed is that of cooperation between all countries to overcome this crisis.

"The crisis of the Covid-19 has brutally and painfully shown our interconnection, our interdependence and has also shown the strength of multilateralism and international cooperation," said the President of the Council of Europe, Charles Michel, at the press conference with Von der Leyen.

In this regard, Von der Leyen, said that the United States, which last year "broke the consensus in the G20 for its opposition to the Paris Pact" this time "is supporting the conclusions".

"This weekend's summit can mark a new beginning for multilateralism," she added.