Saudi crown prince suggests two G20 extraordinary leaders’ meetings to take place yearly

Saudi Arabia will continue to answer the global call to address modern challenges, together with G20 members, says Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

RIYADH:  Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman recommended that going forward, the Group of Twenty (G20) organization should hold two annual summits, a virtual one in the middle of the year, and a physical summit at the end.

Minutes before the closing remarks of the Kingdom’s G20 presidency, the crown prince said: “I would like to thank all of our ministers and officials for their active participation during many meetings, and the succession of this year’s programs despite the difficult circumstances.”

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) represented an unprecedented global threat, prompting the Kingdom to hold two summits during its presidential year, which has not happened in any previous presidency since the group’s founding in 1999.

The crown prince said that based on the success of the Saudi experience in holding an extraordinary G20 summit last March, and the success of the Riyadh summit, he proposed that going forward, two annual summits be held instead.

“We hope that Italy will crystallize this idea with the aim of supporting joint international coordination and intensifying the role, to come up with policies and initiatives to meet any challenges and determine the economic and well-being of our peoples,” he said.

As this year is an extraordinary year for the whole world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Saudi Arabia was honored to host the G20 Leaders’ Summit virtually over two days, on Nov. 21-22, 2020.

After King Salman’s closing remarks and the handing over of the presidency to Italy, Crown Prince Mohammed ended the summit by highlighting the G20’s achievements since its foundation.

“(The G20) has been an essential link among our countries. It has demonstrated the vitality of its role, over the years, to deal with economic, financial, social, and environmental issues,” he said.

The crown prince emphasized the importance of cooperation in light of the outbreak of COVID-19 , and its health, economic, and social repercussions.

“Together we have addressed this challenge with seriousness necessitated by the responsibility to preserve human life, protect livelihoods, mitigate the ensuing damage of this pandemic, and raise readiness to face any future crises, God forbid,” he added.

Saudi Arabia’s presidency of the G20 was exceptional in that it adopted the slogan of “Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All” to empower people, safeguard the planet and shape new frontiers, and to address the professional interaction led by the Kingdom to unite efforts to confront the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We stand today at the end of an exceptional year in which we had the privilege and responsibility of the G20 presidency,” he said. “This year, the G20 adopted priorities that we worked on together to implement, top of which is addressing the health care, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic.”

He mentioned that the G20 had demonstrated that “together, our strength lies in our unity. This is exactly what the G20 was created for — to bring countries from every continent together to address collectively the greatest challenges of the day and implement joint and effective solutions.

“We fully realize the importance of better protection from future pandemics, and we must draw lessons from this crisis. To ensure that, the Saudi G20 presidency proposed an initiative to enhance access to pandemic tools.”

He said that this initiative would work to achieve three goals: First, to promote research and development, and distribution of diagnostic tools, therapeutics, and vaccines for all infectious diseases. Second, to encourage and facilitate international funding for global pandemic preparedness, and third, to support the training of epidemiologists all over the world.

Throughout its presidency of the G20, the Kingdom has dedicated its efforts to building a stronger and more sustainable world, in parallel with its significant economic and social transformation based on Vision 2030.

“We conclude this summit determined to take action and to continue working together until we overcome the pandemic, giving hope and reassurance to our nations and to the world. We are proud of what we have accomplished this year, and we know that plenty still needs to be done,” the crown prince said,

“Saudi Arabia will continue to support the international efforts related to providing equitable and affordable COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines for all, once they become available. I know many join us in this commitment.

“We will work together with our international partners and the Italian G20 presidency next year to achieve this. The Kingdom will continue to answer the global call to address the challenges of the 21st century, together with the G20 members. We wish all the best for Italy,” he concluded.

Topics: G20 RIYADH 2020 G20 SUMMIT G20 SAUDI ARABIA 2020 VISION 2030 CORONAVIRUS

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi Arabia devoted G20 presidency to stronger, more sustainable world

Saudi presidency focuses on global long-term issues beyond the pandemic

Summit addresses major issues such as the future of education and climate change

RIYADH: The second day of the G20 summit focused on education and safeguarding the planet — issues critical to humanity — which could easily have been forgotten in the middle of a health and economic crisis.

However, the Saudi presidency ensured that the G20 looked beyond the immediate economic and health challenges, true to the theme of “Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All.”

Day 1 had focused on the G20 ensuring access to coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines for all and access to finance for the poorest nations. This included supporting the ACT accelerator and GAVI as well as a quest for strengthening multilateral efforts, and the WHO went toward the first.

The debt service suspension initiative had 73 countries which qualified for it, and 46 of these have so far availed themselves of this. These are some of the most pressing issues the world faces, because COVID-19 has thrown the global economy into a recession not seen since the Second World World. The fiscal and monetary stimulus packages totaling $11 trillion so far would not have been possible without the coordination efforts of the G20, which has had to focus on the economic necessities of the time.

The summit focused on education and safeguarding the planet. (Photo/Basheer Saleh)

However, it was crucial that the G20 addressed other issues defining the future of humanity. To that end, Saudi Education Minister Dr. Hamad bin Mohammed Al-Sheikh gave a briefing on the future of educational continuity in times of crisis, during which he highlighted the importance of education during the pandemic and lockdowns.

Al-Sheikh explained the Saudi model, in which the curriculum went online using a learning management system. He admitted that reliable online education, while a big opportunity for the future of education, may not be that easy to achieve for poorer countries and poorer segments of the population. Nonetheless, he praised the educational groups within the G20 for focusing on the future of education for the whole world. Education proves once more that cooperation at the G20 is vital during and after the pandemic.

If there ever was one issue requiring global cooperation and which is taking us well into the 22nd century, it is the environment and climate change. It was the big global topic before the pandemic struck and was somewhat on the backburner after that.

The side event, “Safeguarding the Planet — the Circular Carbon Economy Approach,” was important in that context: King Salman was joined on the virtual stage by leaders from the world’s most populous countries, as well as Japan, Australia, the US and Italy, which holds next year’s G20 presidency.

The king stressed that it was critical to safeguard the planet and that “we must create the conditions conducive of robust, inclusive, balanced and sustainable economies.” He explained the concept of the circular carbon economy, which aims to reduce, reuse, recycle and remove carbon from industrial processes and energy production.

The leaders may have their own views on how to safeguard the planet, however they needed to work together to do so. In the words of China’s President Xi Jinping they needed to “work together for a clean and beautiful world.” The final communique endorsed the circular carbon economy.

What it means for the world

The G20 highlighted once more the importance of multilateralism and working together. There is no way that the multilateral lending agencies could have achieved the debt service suspension initiative without the support of the global heavyweights of the G20.

The $11 trillion worth of stimulus fiscal and monetary stimulus packages also necessitated close cooperation at the G20 level.

The collaboration on the ACT accelerator and GAVI would also not have been possible to that degree without the G20. This holds especially true with regard to future support and funding of the WHO.

It is to the credit of the Saudi presidency that it did not let its theme of “Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All” be derailed by the pandemic, which could have happened all too easily. Instead, the G20 addressed other major issues such as the future of education and climate change.

What it means for GCC

It was important for the Arab world that one of their own, Saudi Arabia, the only Arab member of the G20 and one of only three Muslim majority countries in the club of the world’s most powerful nations, hosted the summit. In the words of King Salman: “Due to its unique stature regionally and internationally, and its unique location which interconnects three continents and lies at the intersection of emerging and developed markets, the Kingdom will continue to play a key role within the G20 to achieve global cooperation and find solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.”

The focus on education is important to GCC, the whole Arab world, and many developing countries, because they have huge and growing young populations. If education cannot be provided on a sustained basis, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the world risks losing a generation.

Climate change and the environment are the defining global issues. They are especially important to a major energy producer such as Saudi Arabia, which has to address the conundrum of uninterrupted energy supplies to the world to ensure economic stability while safeguarding the planet. To that end, it was important that the Kingdom could present its approach on the circular carbon economy.

It was a testament to the G20 presidency of Saudi Arabia that the leaders’ declaration was unanimously accepted, which is never a given at these gatherings.