Indonesia Urges G20 Countries to Strengthen Multilateralism

Bali, MINA – Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi urged G20 member countries to strengthen multilateralism in the midst of increasing global challenges.

“The world has not yet recovered from the pandemic, but is already faced with another crisis, namely the Ukraine war, its effects can be felt globally on food, energy and fiscal space,” Retno said in her opening speech at the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Bali on Friday.

“And as always, developing and low-income countries are the most affected,” she added.

Global growth is projected to slow to 2.9 percent in 2022, while inflation could reach up to 8.7 percent for developing countries.

Global challenges require global solutions, said Retno, but frankly, can’t deny that it’s getting harder for the world to sit down together.

“But can we imagine, if we have to live without multilateralism? I believe the situation will be worse. Unilateralism will become a mighty norm that will take everything”, she explained.

For this reason, everyone has a responsibility to maintain multilateralism.

According to her, multilateralism is the only mechanism by which all countries regardless of size and wealth stand on a footing and are treated equally.

While alluding to the issue of the war in Ukraine, Retno said that it was the responsibility of every country to resolve it.

“So it is our responsibility to end the war sooner rather than later and resolve our differences at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield,” she said.

At the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting, there are the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, the United States Foreign Minister, (USA) Antony Blinke, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, British Foreign Minister Liz Truss, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, and others. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)