1. The 1st Group of Twenty (G20) Sherpa Meeting was held in a virtual format from January 21 to 22 to prepare for this year’s G20 Summit (October 30-31, Rome, Italy). Ambassador for International Cooperation on G20 Affairs Choi Kyong-lim (Korea’s G20 Sherpa) attended the meeting as the representative of Korea.

2. In the meeting, Italy announced that People, Planet, and Prosperity have been selected as the themes for this year’s G20 Summit, and put forward key areas of cooperation to strengthen cooperation among countries in public health, trade, climate change, finance, and development and to create an inclusive and sustainable post-COVID-19 era.

o In particular, Italy stressed the need to further deepen multilateral cooperation amid the continuing socioeconomic impact from COVID-19 and the highly uncertain economic outlook, as well as the need to promote integrated discussions between closely interconnected areas, including education and employment, and energy and environment.

3. The member countries agreed that they will step up collaboration in ensuring equitable and affordable access to vaccines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing support for low-income countries, strengthening social protection for the vulnerable, and strengthening the multilateral trading system. They also agreed to continue to deepen cooperation to respond jointly to long-term risks such as future pandemic preparedness and climate crisis.

4. Ambassador Choi emphasized the Korean government’s key areas of interest, including strengthening public health capacities and global information sharing to prepare for infectious disease pandemics such as COVID-19, supporting COVID-19 vaccines for low-income countries, utilizing the digital economy for economic recovery, and the declaration to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

o In addition, Ambassador Choi stressed the importance of environmentally-sustainable economic recovery and proposed working together in measuring the value of unpaid household work with the aim of increasing women’s economic participation.