From Buenos Aires to Osaka

Mauricio Macri, President, Argentina

It was an honour and a great responsibility for Argentina to lead the G20 throughout 2018. Last year, I wrote that Argentina would seek to act as an honest broker, listening to the voices of member and guest countries, civil society and international organisations. In an increasingly complex international context, it was by no means an easy task, but G20 members once again proved that we could address our present and future challenges in a collective and cooperative manner.

The consensus reached at last year’s Buenos Aires Summit built on agreements reached across different workstreams throughout the year. They covered not only our presidency’s priorities of the future of work, infrastructure for development, a sustainable food future and a gender mainstreaming strategy across the whole G20 agenda, but also on other important issues such as the fight against corruption, the digital economy, health, energy, climate change and trade.

We are proud of the collective effort we led. We found common ground to move ahead and commit to concrete actions that will help lead all our citizens to a more prosperous future. Working together puts us in the best position to address the challenges of our time, among them the overriding goal of building consensus for fair and sustainable development.

Three years before the Buenos Aires Summit, Argentinians embarked on a profound change. We decided we no longer wanted to be stuck in the past. In this spirit, we set ourselves the dream of being able to lead the G20; to be part of the global dialogue and to show our commitment to international cooperation, multilateralism and global governance. We sought to convey the views of our neighbours in the region and the developing world.

When we handed the baton to Japan on 1 December, we were confident that our decision to place consensus at the centre of our vision had contributed to the G20’s relevance and inclusiveness. Japan has presented a series of important priorities that reflect both continuity and innovation.

We welcome the importance given by this year’s presidency to critical issues such as global economic growth, quality infrastructure, global health and the digital economy, seeking to promote a free and open, inclusive and sustainable, human-centred future society. And we thank the Japanese chair for the continuity of a dialogue to seek concrete progress on the need to modernise the World Trade Organization so that it can face current and future trade challenges, as agreed by the leaders in Buenos Aires, bearing in mind the views and needs of both developing and developed countries.

As a member of the troika and as a positive voice in the international community, Argentina will continue to strive for consensus and will cooperate in every way we can to make the Osaka Summit a successful one.