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UN secretary-general invited to attend G20 summit in St Petersburg

The U.N. Secretariat has not officially confirmed Ban’s trip to Russia. This is expected to be announced after his return from the Republic of Korea

UNITED NATIONS, August 21 (Itar-Tass) - Russia has invited U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to attend the upcoming G20 summit in St. Petersburg in September.

“The U.N. Secretary-General has received the invitation to attend the summit of the Group of Twenty,” the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations said on Wednesday, August 21.

The U.N. Secretariat has not officially confirmed Ban’s trip to Russia. This is expected to be announced after his return from the Republic of Korea.

The Group of Twenty (G20) is the premier forum for international cooperation on the most important issues of the global economic and financial agenda.

The G20 brings together finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States of America plus the European Union, which is represented by the President of the European Council and by Head of the European Central Bank.

The G20 was formally established in September 1999 when finance ministers and central bank governors of seven major industrial countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) met in Washington, D.C. in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 1997-1998, which revealed the vulnerability of the international financial system in context of economic globalisation and showed that key developing countries were insufficiently involved in discussions and decisions concerning global economic issues.

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