The 2020 Riyadh Summit, the 15th meeting of the Group of 20, was hosted by Saudi Arabia on Nov. 21 and 22. Expectations for this year’s meeting were not high, for three reasons.
First, the coronavirus pandemic had forced the meeting to be held virtually, so the participants were unable to engage in face-to-face meetings or in the bilateral discussions that in the past have often produced more concrete results than the summit communiques that necessarily reflected the lowest common denominator of the 19 countries and the European Union, which comprise the G20.
Second, Saudi Arabia, this year’s host country, continues to be criticized for its human rights policy. In particular, the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istabul in October 2018, which led to widespread protest against the Saudi government and calls for many of the European heads of state to boycott the summit.