Feb 18-20: G20 Foreign Ministers to Focus on Global Governance Issues in Los Cabos

The Group of 20’s foreign ministers converge on Los Cabos this weekend in a precursor to the G20 summit slated to take place in the same city come June. No documents will be negotiated; instead, the goal of the informal February 18-20 meeting is to hold “a brainstorming exercise on the most salient issues of global governance,” says Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa. “The world is running out of time as it faces major challenges on several fronts,” wrote the secretary in an op-ed for The Australian that previewed the ministerial-level meeting.

As the first Latin American country to host the G20, Mexico can showcase its ability to play an international role in forging solutions to those challenges. When assuming the G20 presidency, Mexico outlined specific focus areas, in particular green-investment promotion, social development, and food security. In light of this weekend’s meeting, Council on Foreign Relations’ Fellow Stewart Patrick blogs that Mexico should set two priorities to ensure success at this year’s summit: tying the G20 to the Rio+20 Summit, and urging G20 leadership to focus on development of fragile states. “As hosts of the G20, the Mexican government has an opportunity to forge major-power consensus on each front,” writes Patrick.

Learn more:

• Information about Mexico’s G20 presidency at g20.org.
• Op-ed by Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa about the February 18-20 ministerial meeting.
• Overview of G20 Ministers of Foreign Affairs Informal Meeting.

Carin Zissis is the editor-in-chief of AS/COA Online.