Foreign ministers of the Group of 20 major countries will hold a 3-day meeting in Mexico starting from next Saturday.

Mexico, this year's chair of the G20 summit, proposed to hold a foreign ministerial meeting in Los Cabos from February 18th to 20th.

This is the first gathering of G20 foreign ministers. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to attend the meeting.

The Japanese government decided to send State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi to the meeting in place of Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba. This is because deliberations on the 2012 fiscal budget are underway at a Lower House committee.

Delegates are expected to discuss a varied agenda, ranging from economic issues such as the European debt crisis to sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, the situation in North Korea after the death of Kim Jong Il, and Syria's continued crackdown on its people.

News credit: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120212_11.html

Image credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/G20_Mexico.jpg