This year Saudi Arabia will host the annual G-20 Summit. World leaders were supposed to gather in Riyadh for the summit. However, the initial plans were cancelled.
Due to the current pandemic and worsening conditions in the countries, the plan was changed.
On Monday, 28th September, Saudi Arabia declared that they would conduct the G-20 Summit virtually.
Ever since the advent of Coronavirus, all the world meetings are done via videoconferencing.
The 2020 G-20 Summit will take place on 21st and 22nd November. It will be held virtually. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud will conduct the meeting.
What is the G-20 Summit?
G-20 stands for “Group of Twenty”. It is an international forum. There are 20 members in the group. It consists of parties like governments, central banks and governors.
G-20 = 19 Countries + European Union.
It was established in the year 1999. The main aim of this forum is to discuss policies. It is done in relation to the issues which are beyond the member’s control. It is mostly in relation to financial stability.
The participants of the Summit account for 80% of world trade. They represent 2/3 of the world population.
List of Members:
As we have discussed, there are 20 members in the Summit. While 19 are countries, the 20th member is the European Union. It represents the European Commission and Central Bank.
Here is a list of all the members and the names of the leaders.
| Country | Leader |
| Argentina | Alberto Fernandez |
| France | Emmanuel Macron |
| India | Narendra Modi |
| Australia | Scott Morrison |
| Mexico | Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador |
| China | Xi Jinping |
| Indonesia | Joko Widodo |
| Russia | Vladmir Putin |
| Turkey | Recep Tayyip Erdogan |
| United States | Donald Trump |
| South Korea | Moon Jae-in |
| United Kingdom | Boris Johnson |
| South Africa | Cyril Ramaphosa |
| Italy | Giuseppe Conte |
| Germany | Angela Merkel |
| Japan | Yoshihide Suga |
| Canada | Justin Trudeau |
| Brazil | Jair Bolsonaro |
| Saudi Arabia | Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud |
| European Union | Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen |
Topics of Discussion in the 2020 G-20 Summit:
In the upcoming G-20 Summit, there will be several important topics of discussion. Here are the topics.
Protecting Lives: The main topic will be the protection of lives. They will discuss the current pandemic situation and how to deal with it.
All the world leaders will come together to discuss the vulnerabilities during the pandemic.
The Summit has contributed nearly $21 billion. It was done to produce, distribute, and provide vaccines for treatment.
Restoring Growth:
They will also discuss the foundation of a better future to restore growth. The members have also collected nearly $11 trillion.
It is done to protect the global economy during Covid-19. They have also started a new initiative. It is for least developed countries.
The countries defer the debts and use it for the betterment of the people instead. Nearly $14 billion is deferred. The money is used for financing health and medical facilities.
This Summit is a good chance for the Saudi Arabia kingdom to gain back the trust and reputation.
This country is very strict in law. There have been controversies about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. The crown prince of the kingdom has been in lots of controversies due to the murder. The members are
