Abdullah bin Zayed participates in G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in India
Minister highlights significance of meetings in promoting international cooperation
New Delhi: Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, is participating in the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, which is being held in New Delhi and will conclude on Thursday.
Sheikh Abdullah heads a high-level delegation in response to the invitation the UAE received to take part in the G20 meetings as a guest country.
During his participation in the two-day meeting, Sheikh Abdullah highlighted the significance of the G20 meetings - chaired by the Republic of India - in promoting international cooperation and multilateral action towards many pressing issues that are a priority in all development plans to achieve sustainable economic prosperity.
Sheikh Abdullah commended the well-established strategic and historical relations between the UAE and India, highlighting the UAE’s firm support for the Indian G20 Presidency. He noted that the UAE and India had achieved many outstanding accomplishments thanks to their comprehensive strategic partnership.
Sheikh Abdullah thanked the Republic of India for organising the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi, expressing his wishes for success during India’s presidency of the G20.
The G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting includes two main sessions. The first is about multilateralism - food, energy, security, and development cooperation.
During the session, Sheikh Abdullah shed light on the importance of strengthening multilateral action and the UAE’s directive towards the most prominent items of the global agenda, especially in light of the country’s hosting COP28 this year.
The second session will focus on new and emerging threats, including counter-terrorism and narcotics, global skill mapping, and focus on global talent pools.
The meetings were attended by Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, Minister of State, and Abdul Nasser Al Shaali, UAE Ambassador to the Republic of India.
The G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting comes at an exceptional time, as the international arena is witnessing unprecedented challenges at the political, economic and environmental levels, foremost of which are climate challenges, the risks of energy and food supplies, and the significant growth in the indebtedness of developing and least developed countries.
This is the second year in a row that the UAE is participating in G20 as a guest country. The first participation was in 2011, also as a guest country, but while chairing the Gulf Cooperation Council at the time, it was the French presidency. Then it was the Saudi Arabian presidency (in 2020), and the UAE was chairing the GCC side. Last year with Indonesia and this year with India, the UAE was invited as a guest country.
Sheikh Abdullah meets with foreign ministers
Sheikh Abdullah held separate meetings with a number of foreign ministers of countries participating in the G20 meetings held in India.
Sheikh Abdullah met with Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs; James Cleverly, UK’s Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs; Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore’s Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic; and Mauro Vieira, Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Sheikh Abdullah discussed with his counterparts the UAE’s bilateral relations with their countries and a number of topics on the G20 agenda, including food and energy security, multilateral action, cooperation and development, humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
During the meetings, Sheikh Abdullah stressed the importance of India’s G20 meetings in promoting multipartite action and international cooperation in order to formulate solutions to many challenges facing the world. The meeting also explored a number of important files related to sustainable development trajectories, such as food security and combatting climate change.