Washington, Oct 30 (PTI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday attended the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting chaired by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Atlanta, focusing on easing energy supply chains and advancing cooperation on shared economic and security challenges.
Jaishankar, who arrived in Atlanta late Thursday evening, interacted with his counterparts from several countries ahead of the meeting.
Opening the two-day deliberations, Rubio warned that the world faces a “moment of choosing” amid mounting economic and geopolitical crises.
"I hope this will be a productive meeting today, as we are in a critical moment. I would call it a moment of choosing, and I would say not just for my country, the United States of America, but frankly for the world," Rubio told the gathering, which also included Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov who was seated between his counterparts from Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
"We are facing a series of interconnected economic and geopolitical crises, many of which pose severe threats to essential foundations of the global economic order, new disruptions and strains to global energy and food markets, to the global supply chain, to trade, to freedom of navigation itself," he said.
He said the G20 "must work together to confront these threats, to strengthen our economic resilience, to safeguard our markets and the economies that they sustain..."
The meeting comes amid deep rifts among the G20 countries over global crises.
"At today's G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, I made clear that maritime and food security drive economic security. Through our America First agenda, the United States is encouraging partners to protect shipping routes, strengthen food security, and reduce the economic consequences of geopolitical crises," Rubio posted on X after his address.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Department of State said that throughout the ministerial, the US will work with G20 partners to address geopolitical crises contributing to global economic shocks, including threats to freedom of navigation, energy and food security, and supply chains.
The US is scheduled to host the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Miami on December 14-15.
Jaishankar will also attend a QUAD Ministerial with his counterparts from Japan, Australia and the United States on the sidelines of the G20 meeting.
This will be the second Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting to be held this year ahead of the likely leaders’ summit to be hosted by the US in the Philippines next month.
From Atlanta, Jaishankar would travel to Antigua and Barbuda to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting scheduled for November 1-4.
