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Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will make a working visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina in conjunction with the 13th G20 Leaders’ Summit, at the invitation of His Excellency Mauricio Macri, President of the Argentine Republic from Wednesday (28 November) to Saturday (1 December), the Prime Minister Office (PMO) announced in a press release.
The office stated that Prime Minister Lee will be hosted to breakfast by President Macri, meet Senator of the Province of Buenos Aires Esteban Bullrich, and Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires Horacio Rodríguez Larreta on 29 November 2018.
At the summit, Prime Minister Lee will participate in discussions under the Argentine G20 Presidency’s theme of “Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development”.
He will also have bilateral meetings with leaders of other countries on the sidelines of the Summit.
The G20 (or Group of Twenty) is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Founded in 1999, the G20 aims to discuss policy pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability. It seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one organization. The G20 heads of government or heads of state have periodically conferred at summits since their initial meeting in 2008, and the group also hosts separate meetings of finance ministers and foreign ministers due to the expansion of its agenda in recent years.
Singapore is not a member of the G-20. However, it has been invited to this year's summit as a representative of Asean, which Singapore chairs this year.
The country will also convey the views of the Global Governance Group (3G), an informal group of 30 small and medium-sized countries which aims to promote greater transparency and inclusivity in the G-20 process.
Singapore has been invited to previous summits as a representative of 3G, along with six other countries, which are Chile, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Rwanda, Senegal and Spain.
Prime Minister Lee will be accompanied by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat, and senior officials from the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Finance. During his absence, Mr Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security will be the Acting Prime Minister from 27 November to 3 December 2018.