As a multilateral forum bringing together the world’s 20 major economies, the G20 is believed to play a strategic role in ensuring global economic growth and prosperity. Strengthening multilateralism and ensuring food security and energy security are key topics on the agenda of the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting that is taking place on July 7 and 8 in Bali, Indonesia.
In a press release, host Indonesia said that at the first session of the meeting on strengthening multilateralism, countries will focus on discussing joint moves to promote global cooperation and build trust among nations, thereby creating a favourable environment for stability, peace and development throughout the world. Meanwhile, at the second session on food and energy security, countries will discuss strategic steps to overcome the food crisis, fertiliser shortage and increasing commodity prices.
Rising commodity prices and disruptions to global supply chains have created a severe impact on economies, especially in developing countries. As an economic forum representing different regions throughout the world, the G20 will comprehensively discuss these issues in a bid to seek sustainable socio-economic solutions.
According to Ambassador Triansyah Djani, co-chair of the G20 Senior Officials Meeting, this Foreign Ministers Meeting is not expected to issue an official document or communique, but the discussed issues will help strengthen specific cooperation between countries in the future.
In addition to the general sessions of the meeting, bilateral and sideline meetings between representatives of G20 countries are also of special interest to the international public. According to analysts, the gathering of representatives of all G20 member countries has been a remarkable success for the host country Indonesia.
As the G20 Chair in 2022, Indonesia invited Ukraine to attend this meeting. Efforts to create opportunities for Ukraine and Russia to express their opinions at the G20 forum are supported by all countries. The countries also highly appreciated the shuttle diplomacy of Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the G7 Summit in Germany, Kiev and Moscow.
One of the much-anticipated sideline meetings at the summit is a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. The international public expects the two diplomats to have a constructive dialogue to find concrete directions to reduce the trade tension between the US and China, which has had a great impact on the overall growth of the world economy. Besides, potential areas of cooperation, such as combating climate change, combating transnational drugs, and global health security were also discussed.
Japan, the Republic of Korea and the US planned to hold a meeting between the heads of foreign affairs of the three countries in Bali. The main content of the trilateral talks is said to be security-related issues on the Korean peninsula.
The G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Bali is an important preparation for the G20 Summit, scheduled to take place in November, also in Bali. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi emphasised that the world situation is really difficult and we need to work together to fulfil our commitments toward peace and humanity. The world is looking to G20 members to show their leadership, especially in the current process of economic recovery and development.
