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G20 Foreign Ministers’ Extraordinary Meeting (Virtual) on Strengthening International Cooperation Across Borders

Posted on: September 03, 2020 | Back | Print

The G20 Foreign Ministers’ Extraordinary Meeting was convened by the current G20 Chair, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 3rd September, 2020. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, His Highness Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al-Saud, chaired the meeting. EAM Dr. S. Jaishankar represented India.

This virtual meeting was convened in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The discussions centred on strengthening international cooperation across borders in wake of COVID-19 crisis. The Ministers also exchanged national experiences and lessons learned from the cross-border management measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemics.

In his remarks, EAM commended Saudi Arabia for its proactive approach in bringing G20 countries together for dealing with this COVID-19 pandemic.

EAM highlighted the steps taken by India in the wake of the pandemic. He apprised the G20 Foreign Ministers about the steps taken by India including Vande Bharat Mission and creation of ‘travel bubbles’ for the welfare and protection of foreign citizens stranded here as well as its own citizens abroad.

EAM called on Governments around the world to ensure that interests of foreign students are protected and movement of stranded seafarers back to their home country is facilitated.

EAM also proposed development of voluntary ‘G20 Principles on Coordinated Cross-Border Movement of People’ with three elements: a) Standardisation of testing procedures and universal acceptability of test results; b) Standardisation of ‘Quarantine procedures’; c) Standardisation of ‘movement and transit’ protocols.

New Delhi
September 03, 2020