Saudi King Salman urges G20 nations to forge global response to Covid-19; G20 to inject $5 trillion in global economy, G20 to inject
G20 pledges to fight tCovid-19, safeguard the global economy, address disruptions in global trade
By IAR Desk
Responding to the call of Saudi king Salman bin Abdel Aziz, leaders of the G20 nations held an extraordinary virtual summit to discss, amongst other things, way to combat the Covid-19 pandemic which has engulfed the whole world, cutting across geographies.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the G20 chair for 2020.
In his opening remarks, King Salman stressed the need for international collaboration to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are holding this meeting to carry out our responsibilities as the leaders of the world’s largest economies, in order to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which requires that we take firm measures on various fronts. This pandemic has greatly taken toll on human lives and caused tremendous suffering to many people aroundthe world. And here, I would like to extend our deepest condolences to all countries around the world and to their respective citizens over the lives lost to this pandemic, wishing speedy recovery for all those who are infected.”
Stressing that the pandemic’s impact ” has spread to reach the global economy, financial markets, trade, and global supply chains, hampering growth and development and reversing the gains accomplished in the previous years” he called on the G20 members to forge a “global response”.
King Salman outlined the steps the kingdom, which is the G20 chair for the year 2020, has taken in the health front.
“On the health front, the Saudi G20 Presidency took the lead and worked with partners and relevant organizations to take all necessary actions in order to contain the spread of COVID-19 and safeguard people’s health. And, here, we value the effective measures adopted by different countries in this regard. We reaffirm our full support for the World Health Organization in coordinating the efforts to counter this pandemic. To complement these efforts, the G20 must assume the responsibility of reinforcing cooperation in financing research and development for therapeutics and a vaccine for COVID-19 and ensure the availability of the vital medical supplies and equipment. We must also strengthen the global preparedness to counter infectious diseases that may spread in the future.”
On the economic front, which is seeing a global meltdown and seems to be increasingly staring at an impending recession, the monarch said the G20 “has a pivotal role in countering the economic and social impact of this pandemic” and urged “an effective and coordinated response to this pandemic” to restore confidence in the global economy.
“The Presidency welcomes the policies and measures taken by countries to revive their respective economies, including stimulus packages, precautionary measures, sector targeted policies, and job protection measures. But despite the importance of any country’s individual responses, it is our duty to strengthen cooperation and coordination in all aspects of the adopted economic policies,” King Salman underscored.
The theme of this year’s G20 summit is “Realising opportunities for the 21st Century for All”, and King Salman reiterated the need to be ‘forward looking and adopta a bold long term vision.”
This is the first time the G20 summit is being hosted by the kingdom and therefore it will highlight the perspectives from the Middle East and North Africa. “The Kingdom has a key role to bring forward the perspectives of the Middle East and North Africa region, as well as the views of the developing countries,” the King had earlier said.
King Salman urged the G20 to “send a strong signal to restore confidence in the global economy by
resuming, as soon as possible, the normal flow of goods and services, especially vital medical supplies” and reminded the summit that “it is our responsibility to extend a helping hand to developing countries and least developed countries to enable them to build their capacities and improve their infrastructure to overcome this crisis and its repercussions.”
China, where the Covid-19 emerged, promised to ramp up provisio on necessities and anti-epidemic supplies to global markets. CGTN quoted Chinese President Xi Jinping as saying that China would “actively increasing imports and foreign investment to contribute to global economic stability.” He further proposed that a G20 health ministers’ meet be held as soon as possible.
A joint statement was adopted at the virtual summit, where the members states pledged to fight the pandemic, safeguard the global economy, address disruptions in global trade, and to enhance global cooperation. It committed to injecting “over $5 trillion into the global economy, as part of targeted fiscal policy, economic measures, and guarantee schemes to counteract the social, economic and financial impacts of the pandemic” while pledging to support and work “with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) International Health Regulations (IHR 2005)”
The G20 summit is slated to be held in Saudi Arabia in November this year.
Read the full text of the statement here.
