NEW YORK • Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan hosted the 11th Global Governance Group (3G) Ministerial Meeting last Friday in New York, where he is attending the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

The Global Governance Group is an informal group of smaller and medium-sized countries that aims to provide greater representation to its members and collectively channel their views into the Group of 20 (G-20) process more effectively.

The group consists of 30 countries, including the Bahamas, Luxembourg and Qatar.

Also present at the 3G meeting were foreign ministers from the G-20 troika, comprising Germany, Argentina and Japan, and president of the 73rd UNGA Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces.

A key part of the discussions with the G-20 troika focused on the priorities and deliverables of the G-20 under Argentina's presidency. In particular, the 3G ministers welcomed Argentina's ambitious and forward-looking G-20 agenda of "Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development".

While stressing the importance of sustaining climate change action, the 3G ministers also welcomed the creation of the Climate Sustainability Working Group under Argentina's G-20 presidency.

In a separate engagement, Dr Balakrishnan chaired the Informal Asean Foreign Ministers' Meeting on the sidelines of the UNGA. He also chaired the meeting of the Asean Foreign Ministers with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the president of the General Assembly, which took stock of Asean-UN cooperation.

Dr Balakrishnan also attended a high-level event on counter-terrorism convened by Kazakhstan.