Mohammed Al-Kinani

RIYADH: Global thought leaders urged the international community on Saturday to join together to find research-based solutions to the unprecedented crises created by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Riyadh-hosted Think 20 (T20) summit brought together think tanks, civil society organizations and international institutions to share ideas on how to build a more prosperous, sustainable and inclusive world.

The T20 is the “intellectual backbone” of the G20, the world’s most powerful nations under the presidency this year of Saudi Arabia. 

The past year proved the T20’s work was needed now more than ever, said Prince Turki Al-Faisal, chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown once again how a single nation’s problem can become a global problem,” he said.

Dr. Fahad Al-Turki, the T20 chair and vice president of research at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, called for global joint action to fight the pandemic.

“These are unprecedented times that call for unprecedented collective action. The COVID-19 pandemic has reconfirmed what was already established — health is a global public good and it can only be achieved by effective collaboration,” he said.

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said no country was an island in today’s interconnected world.“Our biggest challenges remain intrinsically global,” he said. 

He called for a return to multilateral cooperation to combat both the pandemic and climate change.

Recommendations in the T20 communiqué will be presented on the final day of the meeting on Sunday before the G20 leaders’ summit on Nov. 21-22.