King Salman Opens G20 Riyadh Summit

This week-end, Saudi Arabia hosts the closing event of the country's G20 Presidency. The Leaders' Summit, held online due to the pandemic and attended by the heads of state of G20 members as well as those of guest
countries and international organizations, was opened by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Welcoming the participants, King Salman pointed out that "the COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented shock that affected the entire world within a short period of time, causing global economic and social losses. Our peoples and economies are still suffering from this shock. However, we will do our best to overcome this crisis through international cooperation."

Talking about the details of this cooperation, he went on to say that "we have expressed our commitment during our Extraordinary Summit to urgently mobilize resources and we all pledged, at the onset of the crisis, over USD 21 billion to support the global efforts to combat this pandemic."

Furthermore, the G20 took extraordinary measures to support their economies by injecting over USD 11 trillion to support individuals and businesses and also extended their social safety nets to protect those prone to losing their jobs or source of income. "To this end, we have provided emergency support to the developing countries, including the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative to the low-income countries," King Salman added.

Recalling the theme of the Saudi Presidency ('Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All'), the monarch stressed that "although the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to adjust our focus rapidly to face its repercussions, the subject areas under this general theme, namely: Empowering People, Safeguarding the Planet, and Shaping New Frontiers, remain essential to overcome this global challenge and shape a better future for our people. In the near future, we must address the vulnerabilities exposed by COVID-19, while working to protect lives and livelihoods."