G20 Summit In Saudi Arabia

The 2020 G20 Riyadh summit was the fifteenth meeting of Group of Twenty (G20). It was scheduled to take place in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, on 21–22 November 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was held virtually.

Participating leaders

File:Alberto Fernandez 2020.jpg,
Alberto Fernández, President
File:Scott Morrison 2014 crop.jpg,
Scott Morrison, Prime Minister
File:Pronunciamento do Presidente da República, Jair Bolsonaro (cropped).jpg,
Jair Bolsonaro, President
File:Trudeau visit White House for USMCA (cropped).jpg, Canada
Justin Trudeau,
Prime Minister
File:Xi Jinping 2019.jpg,
Xi Jinping, President
File:Emmanuel Macron in Tallinn Digital Summit. Welcome dinner hosted by HE Donald Tusk. Handshake (36669381364) (cropped 2).jpg,
Emmanuel Macron, President
File:Angela Merkel 2019 cropped.jpg,
Angela Merkel, Chancellor
File:Official portrait of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, November 2020 (cropped).jpg,
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
File:Joko Widodo 2019 official portrait.jpg,
Joko Widodo, President
File:Giuseppe Conte Official.jpg,
Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister
File:Yoshihide_Suga_20210101.jpg,
Yoshihide Suga, Prime Minister
File:Reunión con el Presidente Electo, Andrés Manuel López Obrador 8 (cropped).jpg,
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President
File:President Vladimir Putin.jpg,
Vladimir Putin, President
File:Salman of Saudi Arabia - 2020 (49563590728) (cropped).jpg,
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King
(host)
File:Mr. Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary-General with H. E. Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, President, South Africa (cropped).jpg,
Cyril Ramaphosa, President
2020 Chairperson of the African Union
File:Moon Jae-in (2017-10-01) cropped.jpg,
Moon Jae-in, President
File:Recep Tayyip Erdogan.PNG,
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President
File:Boris Johnson official portrait (cropped).jpg,
Boris Johnson, Prime Minister
File:Donald Trump official portrait (cropped).jpg,
Donald Trump, President
File:Charles Michel (49467991288).jpg,
Charles Michel, President of the European Council
File:Ursula von der Leyen (49468709252).jpg,
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission

Invited guests

File:King Abdullah II (cropped).jpg,
Abdullah II, King, Guest invitee
File:Paul Kagame 2014.jpg,
Paul Kagame, President, 2020 Chairperson of NEPAD
File:Lee Hsien-Loong - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2012 cropped.jpg,
Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister
Guest invitee
File:Pedro Sánchez in 2018d.jpg,
Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister
Permanent guest invitee
File:Simonetta Sommaruga 2016.jpg,
Simonetta Sommaruga, President
Guest invitee
File:Mohamedu_bin_Rašidu_Almaktūmu.jpg,
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister
2020 Chairperson of the Gulf Cooperation Council
File:Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc.jpg,
Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, Prime Minister
2020 Chairperson of Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Presidency

The G20 Riyadh Summit was chaired by the Saudi King, Salman bin Abdulaziz.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia assumed the G20 Presidency in December 2019, leading up to the Leaders’ Summit to be held in Riyadh on 21–22 November 2020. The Kingdom would guide the work of the G20 under the theme of “Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All” and would officially focus on three aims:

* Empowering People by creating the conditions in which all people – especially women and youth – can live, work and thrive.
* Safeguarding the Planet: by fostering collective efforts to protect our global commons.
* Shaping New Frontiers: by adopting long-term and bold strategies to share benefits of innovation and technological advancement.
Saudi Arabia released a 20 riyal commemorative banknote to mark the G20 presidency.

First Sherpa meeting

The meeting was chaired by H.E. Dr. Fahad Almubarak, the Saudi Sherpa, who elaborated: “The G20 has a responsibility to the world to overcome current and emerging issues, to tackle global challenges together, and to make the world a better place for all."

Sideline events

In the sideline of the summit, Saudi Arabia will be organizing preparatory ministerial meetings as well as other meetings of high governmental officials and representatives from the private sector and non-governmental organizations.

Emergency meeting

On 26 March 2020, the G20 members held an emergency summit via video conference, maintaining social distancing amid COVID-19, in order to plan a coordinated global response against the COVID-19 pandemic. Chaired by King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who presided the 2020 summit, the meeting aimed at finding ways to tackle the economic implications of the virus on global economy, with people losing their jobs and incomes due to lockdowns and curfews imposed globally.

Human rights organization Amnesty International expressed disappointment at the exclusion of human rights-compliant action plans in the emergency summit. A series of demands such as moving towards a zero-carbon economy, guaranteeing access of information to all, and fully integrated gender perspective plans, were made by Amnesty. In addition, the NGO also demanded the release of pre-trial detainees, where possible, and prisoners of conscience such as Saudi Arabia’s Raif Badawi, Loujain al-Hathloul, and Samar Badawi, to prevent the potential spread of coronavirus in prison populations owing to their low immunity.

Historical background

Saudi Arabia's first participation in the G20 meetings was in 2008 Washington summit. By then and as the world suffered from a global crisis, Saudi Arabia was the tenth largest sovereign wealth fund in the world and the second largest oil reserves. Initially, the Saudi entrance to the G20 was due to its economic importance as an effective pricing force in the energy market.

Controversies

On 7 October 2020, the European Parliament released a resolution denouncing the human rights violations of Saudi Arabia. The resolution passed by Member of the European Parliament (MEPs) published highlighting the Kingdom's brutal treatment of the Ethiopian migrants, who were abandoned by the Houthis in Yemen and later detained by Saudi authorities. The MEPs also criticized the country for keeping women's and other human rights defenders in detention, and urged the European Union members to downgrade their diplomatic and institutional representation at the Riyadh G20 Summit.

Under the Group of Twenty (G20) Riyadh summit, Saudi Arabia planned on hosting the B20 event, for which it was criticized by human rights groups and pro-democracy activists over the treatment of women in the country. Activists urged diplomats, politicians and blue chip companies like HSBC, MasterCard and PepsiCo., to boycott the business event and said Saudi Arabia's real change-makers are behind bars, continuously facing abuse in prison cells, including electric shocks, flogging and sexual assault.

The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Dominic Raab, received calls in November 2020 to boycott the G20 summit in Saudi Arabia because of the Kingdom's atrocious human rights record and recent attempts of driving the Bedouin tribe from their land to make way for its upcoming futuristic megacity project, Neom.

See also

* 2019 G20 Osaka summit
* List of G20 summits
* List of G7 summits
* G20 Washington Summit 2008

References

External links

Official website of the G20

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2020 in international relations
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21st-century diplomatic conferences
2020 G20 summit
Diplomatic conferences in Saudi Arabia
Events affected by the COVID-19 pandemic
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Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on politics
November 2020 events in Asia