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Saudi Arabia's King Salman opened the Group of 20 summit Saturday by calling on member countries to reassure the global community they are doing everything possible to combat the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure affordable and equitable access to vaccines.
"We have a duty to rise to the challenge together during this summit and give a strong message of hope and reassurance," King Salman said.
The king's comments were made as global coronavirus cases approached 58 million and worldwide COVID-19 deaths neared 1.4 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented shock that affected the entire world within a short period of time, causing global economic and social losses," the Saudi monarch said.
Saudi Arabia is hosting the summit of the G-20 group of industrial and emerging-market countries Saturday and Sunday, which is being held virtually for the most part because of the pandemic.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has not made many public appearances since losing the presidential election earlier this month, attended the summit virtually. He tweeted about unfounded voter fraud in the November 3 U.S. presidential election during King Salman's remarks before leaving to play golf at his club in nearby northern Virginia.
After Trump left the virtual meeting, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who also attended, said in a Treasury Department statement that the seven-month-old Debt Service Suspension Initiative "is a key achievement of the G-20 in response to the pandemic." The initiative aims to help the world's poorest countries grapple with the consequences of the pandemic until the middle of next year.
Treasury's statement also said the G-20's Common Framework would help the poorest countries address pandemic-induced debt problems "by coordinating sovereign debt resolution if needed."
As expected, summit participants discussed the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the world economy and reviewed ways to stimulate economic recovery and growth.
Observers said it was possible that during the summit, some world leaders might confront the meeting's host, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, over the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi, who was reported to have been slain in Turkey by Saudi agents.
G-20 member countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
They represent, according to the group's website, "around 80% of the world's economic output, two-thirds of global population and three-quarters of international trade."