South Africa judges G-20 summit a triumph of multilateralism despite US no-show

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Nov 23 that the declaration from this weekend’s Group of 20 (G-20) summit reflected a “renewed commitment to multilateral cooperation”, concluding a meeting that pitted him against his US counterpart.

Mr Ramaphosa, host of the Johannesburg summit, pushed through the declaration addressing challenges like the climate crisis despite objections from the United States, which boycotted the event.

Addressing the closing ceremony, Mr Ramaphosa said the declaration showed that world leaders’ “shared goals outweigh our differences”.

US President Donald Trump

boycotted the Nov 22 to 23 summit

on the grounds of allegations, which have been comprehensively falsified, that the host country’s black majority government persecutes its white minority.

Tensions over Ukraine, climate crisis

Mr Trump had also rejected South Africa’s agenda of helping developing nations transition to clean energy, cut their crippling debt costs and adapt to climate change-induced weather disasters.

But Mr Ramaphosa secured consensus from the leaders present, aside from Argentina, which did not object to a declaration being made without it. It was the first G-20 summit in Africa and the joint declaration used the kind of language long disliked by the US administration.

The document stressed the seriousness of climate change and the need for adaptation, praised ambitious renewable energy targets and decried hefty debt service charges suffered by poor countries.

The summit came as tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine fracture the transatlantic alliance, and after

unavailing climate talks at COP30

in Brazil, in which oil-producing and high-consuming nations prevented mention of fossil fuels driving the crisis going into the final declaration.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Nov 23 that both the G-20 and COP30 summits showed multilateralism was very much alive.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the United States was mentioned only in passing at the G-20 summit and that it played only a minor role as new connections are being forged and the world reorganises itself.

“It wasn’t a good decision for the American government to be absent. But that’s something the American government has to decide for itself,” he said.

South Africa’s spat with White House

The US takes over the rotating G-20 presidency after Johannesburg, but South Africa rejected a US proposal to send an embassy official for the handover in Mr Trump’s place as a breach of protocol.

The White House has accused Mr Ramaphosa of refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G-20 presidency.

“We have not yet received any formal communication at this stage,” South Africa’s Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told the media on Nov 23. “But we remain open... It’s up to them.”

He counted it a great success that the declaration acknowledged the need for climate finance for developing countries.

Aside from the surprise agreement on the declaration, world leaders used the G-20 to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war and Mr Trump’s plan to end it, on the sidelines, the first of several meetings expected over the coming days. REUTERS