NEW YORK, APRIL 1 – The G20 Sherpa for Italy, Ambassador Luigi Mattiolo, briefed today the General Assembly virtually on the Group’s ongoing work under the Italian Presidency, touching issues such as the vaccines, climate change, women’s rights and the 2030 Agenda. Italy holds the rotating Presidency of the international forum that brings together the world’s major economies since December 1st with a program resting on three main pillars – People, Planet, Prosperity – and the goal of overcoming the great challenges of today: from recovering from the pandemic to addressing global warming, from supporting innovation to overcoming poverty and inequality.
The G20 will culminate in the Leaders’ Summit, which will be held in Rome on October 30th and 31st. The Italian Presidency and the European Commission will also jointly host the Global Health Summit, to be held in Rome on the 21st of May, at the highest level, enabling a response to the major challenges linked to the health crisis.
The President of the General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, addressing the meeting, called upon the G20 to “continue to demonstrate leadership and to provide support to multilateral initiatives that enable vaccines for all.” He also said that establishing a debt restructuring mechanism and cancelling debt in some cases should be considered. That would be especially important for Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. Meanwhile, flagging the UN’s own financial constraints, Bozkir called upon the G20, as major financial contributors, to help bolster the UN system. (@OnuItalia)
