There is no exaggeration in saying that the G20 summit hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is exceptional and held amid unprecedented circumstances. The global atmosphere surrounding the summit seems alien to the frameworks we came to know. At the forefront of our peculiar situation is the pandemic caused by the outbreak of a disorienting virus that no one knows exactly how to deal with. Inducing anxiety in humanity’s days and insomnia in its nights, the pandemic has led to an economic crisis, the costs of which may soon float to the surface.
Besides the pandemic, we find deteriorating climate conditions that practically threaten humanity as a whole if we continue to ignore it and work against nature. Behind the Atlantic, we have unfamiliar political commotion made over the US presidential election results, and in East Asia, we see a struggle for supremacy. Meanwhile, the old European continent seems inactive and with no influence.
The G20 Summit raised the slogan of Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All. Accordingly, the world needs unity of volition to confront the formidable obstacles it is facing. Here, one remembers that when Saudi Arabia assumed the leadership of the summit on the first of December 2019, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman declared that the kingdom would strive to enhance global unison, work with all of its partners to face the challenges that stand in humanity’s way and entrench security and stability around the world.
Over the past year, the kingdom, with the G20, made significant contributions to the efforts to save humanity from the dreadful pandemic, contributing 21 billion dollars to the efforts to back against the epidemic, including efforts for vaccine production distribution. It also injected 11 trillion dollars to protect the global economy suffering from the pandemic’s repercussions.
Despite the pain we are feeling and the challenges we are facing at present, the kingdom’s determination and its leadership’s prudence turned this moment into an unexpected opportunity to put Riyadh on the world stage and cultivate the image it now warrants.
We can ascertain that the G20 Summit is the best forum to enhance global efforts by working with world leaders, communication groups, and international organizations to discuss the most prominent international challenges. The question is: what about those challenges?
The summit’s agenda items present three fundamental pillars that we discuss as extensively as the space available to answer these questions:
First, Empowering People, particularly women and youth, to give them the ability to live decently, work, and prosper. This is at the heart of the humanitarian dimension of the summit’s efforts. It is to be achieved by creating the conditions through economic and social measures that would grant opportunities to all within legal conditions and frameworks.
Second: Safeguarding the Planet. Here it is necessary to look at this ecological context, which has come to concern everyone due to the changes occurring on the planet’s surface that have had a severe negative impact on the human and animal ability to procreate and find nutrition. The summit is particularly focused on food and water security and energy.
Third: Shaping New Frontiers, in the sense of creating new frontiers by adopting bold and sustainable strategies for sharing the benefits of innovation and technological development, that is, pursuing new paths for research and innovation, to open the door to just opportunities for all.
In short, restoring peace of mind to humanity, which is trembling with anxiety and feeling alone in the face of the imminent danger of Covid-19 on the one hand, and contemporary threats on the other hand, through measures that turn hope into reality. No need for catchy slogans sung without needed concrete actions, such as debt relief and the adoption of bolder measures that enable developing countries to effectively confront the crisis and prevent the global recession from turning into a worldwide depression.
The kingdom wisely realized that the world needed leadership with unprecedented unison to respond to the crisis and enhance recovery and that the pandemic was a wake-up call for all leaders. Saudi Arabia’s prudent leaders foresaw the fact that a global schism means putting everyone at risk.
Thus, Riyadh has worked throughout the past year to strengthen and affirm the spirit of global collaboration amongst the members of the human family. Especially since the massive global concerns cannot be faced by individual countries, and only as groups and institutions can we manage health and economic challenges. The world is very interconnected, and therefore there is a need to work together while respecting differences of circumstances and traditions.
The G20 summit in Riyadh may be the last ray of hope for globalization to prove its importance, effectiveness, and ability to serve humanity. Dealing with the issue of the coronavirus vaccine remains the real test for globalization to prove its efficacy, by providing it as soon as possible, in the largest quantity possible, and distributing it across the globe at a price equivalent to its production cost, no more.
Furthermore, we must help poor countries to obtain it without taking advantage to make a profit and accumulate wealth. Instead, we should open our doors to others who are suffering to restore the human spirit that the war has lost as a result of barbaric capitalism.
Today, Saudi Arabia is invited to cross the barrier of fear and pain through the G20 summit.
