Khaldon Azhari Nagoya

Japan has predicted a “successful and meaningful” meeting of world leaders when Saudi Arabia hosts the G20 summit in Riyadh next year.

The Japanese vote of confidence in the Kingdom came during the G20 foreign ministers conference being held in Aichi, Nagoya.

The meeting was the last in a series of ministerial gatherings hosted by Japan this year before it handed over the group’s rotating presidency to Saudi Arabia.

Addressing journalists, a spokesperson for the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Japan was hopeful that the 2020 G20 Riyadh summit would be successful under the Kingdom’s presidency and was confident of a meaningful get-together in the Saudi capital next November.

During the Nagoya gathering of foreign ministers, which wound up on Saturday, delegates held discussions with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, who was heading his country’s conference delegation.

Japan hosted this year’s G20 summit of heads of state in the city of Osaka, and the conclusion of the Nagoya meeting saw a ceremonial formal handover of the group presidency to Saudi Arabia.

G20 members and nine invited countries spent two days in Nagoya discussing issues ranging from free trade and global governance to African development.

At the center of attention was the ongoing trade dispute among some of the G20 member nations. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo failed to make the meeting and was represented by his deputy, John J. Sullivan.

The ongoing tussle between Japan and South Korea over several issues also came to the fore as it was not clear until the last moment if South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha would attend the gathering.

She did, however, appear after an official South Korean announcement over the country’s decision to remain part of a trilateral military information pact that Seoul had earlier threatened to pull out of.

G20 is composed of 19 of the world’s leading economies as well as the EU. At the summit and ministerial meetings, it has been usual practice for the host to invite a number of other countries from around the world to join talks.

At Nagoya, the nine invited countries made a “significant contribution” to the meeting. Saudi Arabia is expected to follow the same practice in arranging next year’s meetings and the summit.