The State Secretary for International Cooperation (Spanish acronym: SECI), Pilar Cancela Rodríguez, has travelled to Belitung (Indonesia), where she attended, on behalf of Spain, yesterday’s G20 Development Ministerial Meeting with the central theme of ‘Recover together, Recover stronger’. During this meeting, the G20’s commitment to multilateralism to support developing countries in their recovery was reiterated, in order to make them more resilient and foster innovative financing mechanisms.
This ministerial meeting is the culmination of a year of negotiations of the G20’s Development Working Group under the Indonesian Presidency. The meeting was divided into two sessions: on the one hand, “Advancing SDG achievements through strengthening resilience against future crises and promoting innovative financing mechanisms” and, on the other hand, “Reinvigorating the global commitment to multilateralism for timely delivery of SDG achievement”.
Pilar Cancela took part in both sessions, recalling that “in a highly interdependent world in which external shocks may affect every corner, the G20 can act as an essential tool for effectively addressing global challenges”.
The State secretary underlined that “the global efforts undertaken by the international community to overcome COVID-19 on a collective basis has been one example of the many we can achieve by working together”, Specifically, Pilar Cancela recalled the vaccination against COVID-19 “as a global public good”, the swift creation of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and the creation of the Financial Intermediary Fund for Pandemic Prevention, Preparation and Response.
She also reiterated, along with other EU Member States that belong to the G20 that the illegal, unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine by Russia has exacerbated a set of crises, precipitating food insecurity, energy insecurity and the toughening of financial conditions.
The State secretary concluded that “the world needs international collaboration and cooperation now more than ever. In the case of Spain, development cooperation is at the heart of our foreign policy”.