South Africa seeks to prioritise developing world at historic G20 summit

At Africa’s archetypal ever G20, the big country’s docket focuses connected much assistance for mediocre countries against clime situation and to trim indebtedness load amid a Trump-led US boycott.

South Africa has sought to sphere the integrity and stature of the Group of 20 (G20) apical economies, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said successful opening remarks to the historical acme successful Johannesburg, the archetypal connected the African continent.

Ramaphosa said connected Saturday that South Africa is committed to ensuring that the improvement priorities of the Global South and Africa find look successful the group’s agenda.

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The president added determination is an overwhelming statement that 1 of the summit’s tasks is to follow a declaration, emphasising the request for “multilateralism” to face “the threats facing humanity today”.

The United States, which is boycotting the summit, has demanded that the acme not contented a declaration. Ramaphosa has flatly rejected that.

The acme started with an ambitious agenda to marque advancement connected solving immoderate of the longstanding problems that person afflicted the world’s poorest nations.

Leaders and apical authorities officials from the richest and starring emerging economies came unneurotic astatine an accumulation centre adjacent the celebrated Soweto township successful South Africa, erstwhile location to iconic post-Apartheid person Nelson Mandela, to effort and find immoderate statement connected the priorities acceptable retired by the big country.

Many of South Africa’s priorities for the group, including a absorption connected clime alteration and its interaction connected processing countries, person met absorption from the US.

South Africa, which gets to acceptable the docket arsenic the state holding the rotating presidency, wants leaders to hold to much assistance for mediocre countries to retrieve from climate-related disasters, trim their overseas indebtedness burdens, modulation to greenish vigor sources and harness their ain captious mineral wealthiness – each successful an effort to antagonistic widening planetary inequality.

“We’ll see,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said connected whether the G20 could prioritise processing satellite countries and marque meaningful reforms.

“But I deliberation South Africa has done its portion successful putting those things intelligibly upon the table.”

Guterres cautioned that affluent nations person often failed to marque the concessions required to onslaught effectual clime oregon planetary fiscal betterment agreements.

The two-day acme is taking spot without the world’s biggest system aft President Donald Trump ordered a boycott of the acme implicit his baseless claims that South Africa is pursuing racist anti-white policies and persecuting its Afrikaner achromatic minority.

The Trump medication has besides made wide its absorption to South Africa’s G20 docket from the commencement of the year, erstwhile it began hosting G20 meetings.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped a G20 overseas ministers ‘ gathering successful February, slamming the docket arsenic being each astir diversity, equity and inclusion, and clime change.

Rubio dismissively said helium would not discarded American taxpayers’ wealth connected that.

A wide presumption of the plenary hallway connected the opening time of the G20 acme successful Johannesburg, November 22, 2025 [Yves Herman/Reuters]

‘So galore challenges’

The months-long diplomatic rift betwixt the US and South Africa deepened successful the build-up to the main acme this weekend, but portion Trump’s boycott dominated the pre-talks discussions successful Johannesburg and threatened to undercut the agenda, immoderate leaders were anxious to determination on.

“I bash regret it,” French President Emmanuel Macron said of Trump’s absence,

“But it should not artifact us. Our work is to beryllium present, prosecute and enactment each unneurotic due to the fact that we person truthful galore challenges.”

The G20 is really a radical of 21 members that includes 19 nations, the European Union, and the African Union.

The bloc was formed successful 1999 arsenic a span betwixt affluent and mediocre nations to face planetary fiscal crises. While it often operates successful the shadiness of the Group of Seven richest democracies, G20 members unneurotic correspond astir 85 percent of the world’s economy, 75 percent of planetary commercialized and much than fractional the planetary population.

But it works connected statement alternatively than immoderate binding resolutions, and that is often hard to travel by with the antithetic interests of members similar the US, Russia, China, India, Japan, the Western European nations France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and others similar Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.