G20 urged to show multilateralism
Print Edition
WORLD leaders should “persist in unity and cooperation and exert leadership in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” China’s top diplomat has said.
Addressing a meeting of the G20 by video link, China’s State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on the group of major economies to show “true multilateralism.”
He said the concept of multilateralism needs to be treated as more than a “high-minded slogan” and put into practice through strengthening institutions such as the World Health Organization and opening up the global economy.
“China calls on able countries to avoid export restrictions or excessive hoarding” of vaccines, Wang said, adding that China has exported 450 million doses of vaccines to nearly 100 countries.
After the G7 leaders used their meeting earlier this month to level criticisms at China, Wang called on the larger G20 to show leadership and “adhere to win-win cooperation and oppose zero-sum rejection.”
The Group of Seven includes the world’s most developed nations such as the US, the UK and Japan. The Group of 20 is an expanded gathering of countries, which together account for some 80 percent of the world’s GDP.
Italy welcomed G20 foreign ministers to the southern city of Matera for their first in-person talks since the start of the pandemic that has claimed nearly 4 million lives worldwide. Some ministers were participating remotely because of travel concerns, including from China, Russia and Brazil.
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio cited vaccines and climate change efforts as areas where it’s imperative that countries pull together.
“In an interconnected world, multilateralism and international cooperation are the only effective instruments in facing global challenges,” Di Maio said.
In a sharp reversal in tone from the previous US administration, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for empowering multilateral institutions to defeat COVID-19, tackle the widening global inequality and step up the battle to arrest climate change.
Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula of the Democratic Republic of Congo, participating as part of an Italian push to involve African nations in G20 talks, warned that coronavirus was far from over in his continent and called for urgent measures.
The G20 must help “concretely and in detail so we move beyond speeches to urgent action on the ground,” he said.
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