Indonesia Affirms Readiness For Cooperation In Overcoming Crisis At GCRG Sherpa Meeting

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government confirmed its readiness to work together to overcome the global crisis at the first virtual meeting at the Sherpa level of the Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG).

Secretary of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs (Kemenko Perekonomian) Susiwijono Moegiarso as the GCRG Sherpa for Indonesia said that currently several parts of the world depend on Russia and Ukraine for food supplies, which are very disturbed by conflicts and exacerbated by price spikes, especially related to the delivery of goods and logistics.

"Countries that depend on fossil fuels are struggling to find energy sources due to economic sanctions. The crisis has prompted an urgent need to provide sustainable supplies and accelerate the energy transition," said Susiwijono as quoted by Antara, Saturday, May 14.

Susiwijono stressed the importance of supply chain diversification to alternative sources and collective capacity building for the affected countries.

As the world's largest exporter of natural gas and the world's second largest exporter of oil, sanctions imposed on Russia have led to significant increases in energy prices.

Regarding global financial issues, Indonesia expressed readiness to discuss ways to reduce the high risk of debt distress, especially those faced by developing countries and low-income developing countries, including those related to the Debt Service Suspension Initiative.

The three issues discussed will also be a priority agenda at this year's G20 Indonesia Presidency. The G20 Working Group that is relevant to these issues will synchronize and synergize concrete deliverables with GCRG programs.

The GCRG was formed by the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) consisting of 6 Heads of State/Head of Government as the Champions Group of the GCRG with the aim of coordinating policies and implementation in dealing with crises arising from the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic. .

The first meeting of the GCRG Sherpas discussed the expected role in the formation of the GCRG and an advocacy strategy to formulate action steps and recommendations, as well as the GCRG Roadmap to overcome the crisis situation being faced to be advocated to Heads of State/Heads of Government.

The meeting was chaired by UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed and attended by GCRG Sherpas from Indonesia, Germany, Denmark, Bangladesh and Senegal.

Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Amina Mohammed said the Champions Group of the GCRG was urgently needed to navigate multidimensional crises, especially the food, energy and financial crises.

The GRCG also seeks to evacuate Ukrainian citizens from Mariupol as soon as possible, by opening the borders of neighboring countries and providing humanitarian assistance.

"Through this forum, the United Nations is in a proactive mode to mitigate the challenges that will come and in its implementation will try to align with agendas outside the GCRG, such as the agenda at the G7 and G20 Forums," said Amina.

He conveyed that the United Nations appreciated Indonesia's leadership in the 2022 G20 Presidency. Just like at the G7 Forum, the United Nations has had several partners to discuss the food security agenda.

The results of the GCRG meeting will be presented in the form of briefing notes. For the next meeting in the third or fourth week of May 2022, briefing notes will be divided into several sub-groups, namely fertilizer, logistics, and investment.