The meeting of the G20 foreign and development ministers is held today in Matera, one of the most important appointments of the current Italian presidency, in view of the summit of the heads of state and government that will instead take place in Rome in October.
The heads of diplomacy of the twenty major world economies were welcomed yesterday evening at the Swabian Castle in Bari by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi Di Maio. There will be, among others, the US Secretary of State Antony Blink, the foreign minister of China Wang Yi, the High Commissioner for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell.
It will be an important opportunity for confrontation, which comes after the European tour of the President of the United States Joe Biden, who in the G7 and NATO has called together the allies in particular against China, identified as a threat to architecture. global security. But, above all, it will be an opportunity for Italy to focus the debate on Africa, a continent that Rome considers a priority for its foreign policy. The aim is to reach an extension of the suspension of the African debt by the end of the year.
Two sessions: global governance and Africa
In Matera today the ministerial meeting will be divided into two sessions. The first will concern the theme of global governance and multilateralism, with particular emphasis on the need to strengthen international cooperation on key issues such as global health, the fight against climate change and trade. The second session will be dedicated to Africa. At the end of the meeting, the Matera Ministerial Declaration will be adopted, a document that affirms the commitment of the G20 to address current food emergencies and to build sustainable food systems with the aim of achieving “a world free from hunger by 2030″.
The Declaration enhances the role of the “Food Coalition” launched by Italy within the United Nations Organization for Agriculture and Food (FAO) and reaffirms its commitment to promoting the “One Health” approach, which aims to simultaneously preserve human, animal and environmental safety in order to achieve global health, with a particular focus on the employment of women and young people. The Italian presidency of the G20 focuses on three pillars of action: “People, Planet and Prosperity”.
Post-pandemic recovery
A joint meeting of foreign and development ministers will also take place in Matera in the afternoon. A specific session of development ministers will follow, which will be chaired by the deputy minister Marina Sereni. At the end of the meeting, a press release is expected to reaffirm the G20’s commitment to a “strong, inclusive and sustainable” post-pandemic recovery in developing countries, through innovative financing measures and a local approach that enhances the role of intermediate cities. These are issues that will also be explored the next day in Brindisi, when the United Nations Emergency Response Base (UNHRD), managed by the World Food Program (WFP), will host a ministerial event on the “role of logistics in the preparation and response to the Covid-19 pandemic and future humanitarian and health crises “. The meeting will be chaired by Di Maio and the executive director of WFP, David Beasley, and moderated by the president of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Francesco Rocca.
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