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Almost the entire Eternal City had emergency security measures in place due to the presence of heads of state and government from most of the group’s countries. Police, carabinieri and soldiers monitor their safety and order in the capital. Their number was increased by more than five thousand. Archers and soldiers were deployed with dogs.
In Rome, among others, there are presidents: the United States of America Joe Biden, France Emmanuel Macron, South Korea’s Moon Day, Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres . Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel will also attend the summit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will not attend. Both are scheduled to actually communicate with the summit participants and deliver speeches, and the foreign ministers of these two countries, Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi, will attend immediately.
The main topics of discussion began at 10:00 am at the Novola Conference Center, in the Eurozone, to combat the pandemic, the worldwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign and recovery from the economic crisis and climate change and the need to stop it, especially in the context of the beginning of May 31. United Nations Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland. Most of the participants in the Roman meeting will go there.
The G-20 accounts for – as the media reports – 80 percent of global GDP, 75 percent of global trade, 60 percent of the planet’s population, and 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. This, in turn, means that the countries of this group are the main engine of the economy, but at the same time the largest polluter on the planet, the Italian press reports.
The topic of rising energy prices and related problems will be discussed. There will also be discussions in the public forum, or in smaller groups, about the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban took power and about Iran’s nuclear program.
Commentators point out that the biggest expectation for the summit is that it won’t be just a photo opportunity. At the same time, it was warned that major decisions and a tentative climate agreement were not expected. The result will be, first and foremost, a commitment to provide vaccines to poor countries. It is reported that Italy earlier led the Group of Twenty to promise to strive to vaccinate at least 40 percent of the world’s population by the end of this year.
The new stated goal is to reach 70 percent of the world’s population that has been vaccinated by the middle of next year. But for this purpose and acceleration of vaccination, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, warned in Rome of the loss of $ 20 billion.
Evidence of the huge disparities is – as noted by the daily Corriere della Sera – that the G20 countries received 15 times more doses of vaccines than the countries of sub-Saharan Africa.
A clear declaration of joint commitment is also expected to create a mechanism to make the world better prepared for future pandemics.
The first day of the meeting of world leaders will end with a meeting with beauty and history; In the evening they will visit the Baths of Diocletian. They will then head to the Quirinal Palace for a dinner hosted by the President of Italy, Sergio Matterella.
On Sunday mornings, they will also visit the monuments of the Eternal City.
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