G20, meeting by video conference, pledges $5 trillion to soften the pandemic’s blow.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan speaks with other G20 leaders during a video conference on Thursday.Credit...Japan's Cabinet/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Group of 20 major economies vowed on Thursday to inject $5 trillion into the world economy to blunt the social, economic and financial blows of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a joint statement released after a virtual summit, the group promised to cooperate on wide-ranging measures to save lives, protect economies and share medical equipment to combat Covid-19, the disease the virus causes.

The meeting itself reflected the huge challenges posed to the world’s biggest economies by the pandemic, which has infected hundreds of thousands of people on almost every continent and led to more than 20,000 deaths.

Instead of an in-person meeting, the summit, chaired by King Salman of Saudi Arabia, was held by videoconference.

“The G20 is committed to do whatever it takes to overcome the pandemic,” the group’s statement said, vowing to support the efforts of the United Nations and other international organizations.

But the statement’s means of implementation were left unclear. It did not say which countries would contribute how much of the promised $5 trillion or how the sharing of medical gear would be organized.

Rivalries between members of the Group of 20 could complicate cooperation, with Saudi Arabia and Russia currently involved in an oil price war and China and the United States trading accusations over the origin of the virus.

Reference: NY Times