Meeting in Rome
Special photo of the G20 at Merkel’s last summit – two important heads of state are missing
After the top politicians of the most important industrialized countries had lined up on Saturday, host Mario Draghi also brought doctors, nurses and paramedics onto the stage
© Ludovic Marin / AFP
The heads of state and government of the G20 group met in Rome on Saturday for a two-day summit. One last time: Chancellor Angela Merkel. But two other important heads of state were missing. At the beginning there was a special group photo.
The last G20 summit with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has begun. The only executive head of government took part in the conference of the most important economic powers in Rome on Saturday, together with her finance minister and likely successor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
The summit began on Saturday with the greeting of the participants by the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and the traditional group photo. For this, the host brought Corona helpers on the podium – doctors, nurses and paramedics.
To the applause of the politicians, they then stood between the heads of state. The outgoing Chancellor Merkel was taken in the middle by two doctors and had a short chat with them. Italy was one of the hardest hit countries in Europe by the pandemic last year
Two important heads of state are missing from the G20
Two important heads of state are missing in Rome: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not come because of the corona pandemic. Merkel will also be accompanied by her husband Joachim Sauer at the summit.
The first day of the summit will be about the fight against corona and the economic consequences of the pandemic. The most important economic powers want to work to ensure that at least 70 percent of the population in all countries worldwide will be vaccinated against Corona by next September. The health and finance ministers had supported this goal of the World Health Organization (WHO) at their meeting on Friday. However, it is still unclear what the G20 will do to achieve this goal.
Climate protection is the main topic on Sunday. At the same time, the World Climate Conference will begin in Glasgow, Scotland, which will deal with the goal of reducing dangerous global warming to 1.5 degrees as far as possible, as set out in the Paris Agreement in 2015. The G20 countries play the decisive role here because they are responsible for more than three quarters of emissions.
See in the video: At the G20 summit, the most important industrialized and emerging countries want to accelerate climate protection and the fight against pandemics.