G20 FM meeting kicks off in Germany
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E-mail Xinhua, February 17, 2017
Foreign ministers of the G20 convened on Thursday for a two-day meeting to discuss international issues on sustainability, conflict prevention and cooperation with Africa.
"Foreign policy is, and must be, more than crisis management," German Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in a statement issued prior to the G20 meeting.
"We are well advised not to constantly run from one fire to the next, putting out the flames. That is why it is so important that the 20 largest countries (economies) in the world are meeting to address the causes of conflicts and the options for peaceful crisis prevention and conflict resolution," he said.
"No country in the world can tackle the major international problems of our time alone," Gabriel noted. "Terrorism, water scarcity, forced migration and humanitarian emergencies cannot be resolved by isolation. Climate change cannot be tackled by barbed wire," he added.
According to the program circulated here, the participants are meeting on Thursday for the first working session focused on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted in September of 2016 at the Hangzhou Summit.
The participants will meet for the second session on Friday to discuss issues about conflict prevention, post-conflict peacebuilding and how to strengthen cooperation with Africa.
Gabriel is expected to hold a press conference at the end of each session. The meeting, however, will conclude without any official statement.
The meeting of foreign ministers, part of the German Presidency in the G20 Group, is held at the World Conference Center in Bonn. Heightened security was visible outside the conference center and about 2,000 policemen were reportedly mobilized to ensure the safety of the gathering.
The G20 is comprised of 19 countries plus the European Union. The countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, Britain and the United States.
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