Anies: G20 Is Not A Forum Of Tongues

DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan at Jalasena/DOK Public Relations DKI Provincial Government

JAKARTA - DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said the series of G20 meetings was not a small talk forum but required a long diplomatic process, although not much was seen until the summit in Bali in October 2022.

"So don't imagine leadership at the G20 as ceremonial. This is extraordinary diplomatic work behind the scenes that is invisible," Anies said in "Urban 20 Talks" as reported by Antara, Thursday, February 24.

According to Anies, prior to the G20 Summit in Bali, a number of agendas were carried out, one of which was the Urban 20 Forum (U20).

The U20 Forum is a forum that involves city regional leaders or governors and mayors of G20 members who are scheduled to meet face-to-face in Jakarta in August 2022.

Besides DKI Jakarta, the U20 Forum will also be a co-chair with West Java.

The involvement of regional leaders, he said, is needed considering that many of the problems discussed at the national level originate from urban areas, including urbanization issues that have an impact on environmental aspects.

Therefore, he said, the diplomatic process for U20 had started in March 2021 through talks and technical meetings before heading to a regional leader's meeting, which was facilitated by one of the 40 Cities Network or C40.

Not only regional leaders' level meetings, G20 finance ministers' level meetings have also been held.

In each of these meetings, Anies continued, there was a strict process of negotiation, persuasion, and tug of war between the delegates, because each of them brought ideas to become a mutual agreement.

"So don't imagine this meeting is just small talk. This is not small talk," he said.

There are also six themes that have been agreed to be the initial discussion at the technical level to be discussed in the U20, namely, economic recovery for all. development of productive and affordable housing, new and renewable energy, population mobility, mental health and resilience to pandemics, and the future of work.

Later, the six themes discussed in the technical meeting will become recommendations to be determined at the U20 meeting.

If agreed upon in the U20, the theme will become a joint communique to be brought to the G20 Summit level.

"The communique is then handed over to the G20 presidency. Later at the G20 level it will be agreed upon and then implemented in all G20 members," he said.