(Newswire.net — November 23, 2020) —
This weekend the annual G-20 meeting was held virtually. It was initially scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh, but due to the coronavirus pandemic was shifted to an on-line form.
Leaders of 19 countries and the European Union vowed on Sunday to focus their efforts on making the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine widely available, as US labs near approval after promising tests.
“We will spare no effort to ensure their affordable and equitable access for all people,” was the closing statement in the summit’s address.
The leaders in the G-20 also discussed debt of developing nations and they are worried that the pandemic will increase the gap between the rich and the poor. The Debt Service Suspension Initiative that was already extended in October will again be extended to last until July 2021.
The European Union stressed the importance of contributions totaling $4.5 billion towards a global project aimed at the development and distribution of vaccines and tests.
As the virtual summit opened Trump tweeted about voter fraud, while on the summit itself he stressed that the United States have “marshaled every resource” to develop vaccines and other treatments, but he made no official pledges regarding the availability of US vaccines. After attending the online meeting Trump left the White House to go golfing.
Chinese president Xi Jinping proposed the global use of QR codes to track the health and travel permission of travelers. QR codes are commonly used in China to track people along with other measured imposed by their social credit system.
Members of the G-20 include: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union, with Spain holding a permanent guest invite.