Within five days of APEC summit, US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again attended a virtual multilateral forum. The occasion was the two day G-20 meeting which was scheduled to be hosted in Riyadh on Nov 21-22. Once again, the Corona Virus pandemic dominated the discourse.
Appearing for the last time in the G20 summit, President Trump once again defended his decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement. He was of the view that the accord was “unfair and one-sided” and was intended to kill the “American economy”.
Speaking at the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed COVID-19 as the biggest challenge since the Second World War. He also said that, in a post-pandemic environment, there is an urgent need for new world.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, while attending the online summit, stressed the importance of poverty reduction. He said that China is ready to work with other countries to make the world a nice place free of poverty. He also called for joint efforts to tackle climate change and other related environmental challenges.
Ahead of the G-20 summit, Saudi Defence Minister Prince Mohammad Bin Salman came under criticism for human rights violation in his country and the ongoing war in Yemen which has been going on for the last more than five years.
The G-20 forum now encompasses 85 per cent of the global population. Apart from the afore-mentioned leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders of the European bloc also attended the event.
India is set to host the G-20 summit in 2023.
