Officials from the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretariat concluded their participation in the second Group of 20 (G-20) Sherpa Meeting held in Khobar, Saudi Arabia on March 12. The UAE, the current Chair of the GCC, attended in its capacity as a guest invitee for this year’s G-20 Summit, which will take place in November 2020 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The Sherpa Meeting gathered official representatives of G-20 member countries to discuss preparations for the G-20 Summit. The UAE and GCC delegation was led by His Excellency Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, Minister of State and UAE Sherpa.
The meeting addressed a number of G-20 priorities, including health, trade and investment, energy, climate change, the world economy, and the spread of COVID-19. During the meeting, His Excellency Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh affirmed the UAE’s and GCC’s priorities in the run-up to the G-20 Summit.
On global health, His Excellency noted that the UAE is “very supportive of the G-20’s efforts on value-based health care, digital health, [and] patient safety.” His Excellency indicated: “The emergence of COVID-19 has revealed the pressing need for governments to strengthen national health systems across the globe and enhance preparedness for pandemics,”and called for the G-20 to recognize and support initiatives such as the UAE’s Reaching the Last Mile initiative, which focuses on the elimination of preventable diseases.
Highlighting the UAE’s efforts towards climate change mitigation and environmental sustainability, Al Sayegh stated: “The UAE aims to build a sustainable economy that meets our critical aspirations on climate change, and which can respond effectively to global demand for energy.” In pursuit of this goal, His Excellency highlighted: “By 2025, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) plans to expand its Carbon Capture and Storage capability to 5million tons of CO2 per annum from the current 800,000 tons of CO2 per annum.”
The UAE will participate in the third Sherpa Meeting in Jeddah in September.
Established in 1999, the G-20 Summit is an annual gathering of representatives of the world’s largest economies that works to strengthen international economic cooperation.
Following Saudi Arabia’s assumption of the G-20 presidency, this year’s theme was announced as “Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All.”
