Saudi Arabia announced today that the G20 leaders’ summit would be held virtually on November 21 and 22 this year.
The decision means that the COVID-19 pandemic has derailed Riyadh’s hopes of hosting the meeting in the kingdom to boost its international standing.
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud will chair the fifteenth meeting of G20 which will focus on “protecting lives and restoring growth, addressing weaknesses that were uncovered during the pandemic and laying the foundations for a better future.”
This year, more than $21 billion has been donated by the Group of 20 global economies to finance initiatives such as the production and distribution of vaccines to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.
To curb the economic effect of the pandemic, they have also pumped $11 trillion and initiated a debt suspension program for the world’s poorest countries aimed at deferring about $14 billion in debt payments due this year.
The Group of Twenty
The Group of Twenty (G20), is a set of the twenty largest economies in the world that was formed in 1999. It was conceived as a coalition to put together the most important industrialized and emerging economies to address international economic and financial stability.
It is an international forum for governments and central bank governors from 19 nations including Argentina, Russia, Australia, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Brazil, India, Canada, the United States, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia assumed the presidency of G20 on 1st December 2019.
