The leaders of the G20 countries showed their unwavering unity and determination to provide a robust and coordinated response to the global COVID-19 crisis on Thursday 26 March. This is the result of an emergency summit by videoconference convened by the Saudi presidency of the G20.
In order to limit the impact of a health, economic and social crisis and to counter the threat of recession, they said they were ready to inject $5 trillion into the economy, to cooperate with all the multilateral financial institutions and to provide all the necessary assistance to the most vulnerable countries.
“The impact of this pandemic has spread to reach the global economy, financial markets, trade, and global supply chains, hampering growth and development and reversing the gains accomplished in the previous years. This human crisis requires a global response. The world counts on us to come together and cooperate in order to face this challenge”, King Salman of Saudi Arabia said in his address to his peers after the in camera meeting.
He had also called for “extending a helping hand to developing and least developed countries to enable them to build their capacities and improve their infrastructure to overcome this crisis and its aftermath”.
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G20 leaders expressed their determination to do everything possible to protect lives, safeguard jobs and incomes, restore confidence, preserve financial stability, restore growth and recovery, minimise disruptions to global trade and supply chains, provide assistance to all countries in need, and coordinate public health and financial measures.
“We will work swiftly and decisively with front-line international organisations, including the WHO, IMF, World Bank and multilateral and regional development banks, to deploy a strong, coherent, coordinated and timely financial package to fill the gaps in their toolkit”, the leaders said in their final communiqué.
They promise development aid and humanitarian assistance, but no mention has been made yet on debt relief, which the international financial institutions are calling for.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had called for a doubling of the capacity of its emergency fund, which currently stands at $50 billion, in particular to allow for “debt burden relief for the poorest countries”, according to the institution’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, quoted in a communiqué issued at the end of the G20.
In a joint statement, the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, who attended the extraordinary meeting, said they “thanked all G20 leaders for the solidarity shown to the European Union and its Member States most affected by the crisis”, as Europe is currently at the epicentre of the crisis.
They assured the G20 of the EU’s commitment to international cooperation and its determination to “continue to assist vulnerable countries and communities around the world, especially in Africa”.
Convinced that an exceptional crisis of this magnitude calls for “unprecedented action and that fast, massive and coordinated global action” to save lives and avert a new economic crisis, Mrs von der Leyen and Mr Michel say they are convinced that the G20 has a key role to play.
Both called on all G20 countries to coordinate their macroeconomic policies, using all available instruments, to mitigate the economic downturn and support the workers and businesses most affected.
On her Twitter account, Mrs von der Leyen announced that “the Commission is ready to organise a donor conference to help the global response to boost our economies, safeguard our production chains, provide vaccines and treatments”.
See the G20 communiqué: https://bit.ly/2xtbkyY (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)