The African continent will host the G20 summit for the first time. The event begins today in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“We view this summit as a historic event, a confirmation of the strengthening of the global positions of South Africa, Africa and the Global South“, the South African Foreign Ministry told TASS.
The two-day summit is chaired by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. All G20 countries are participating, except for the United States, which Ramaphosa said is boycotting the summit.
The President of South Africa invited the 22 heads of state and government to Johannesburg to participate in various meetings and forums on the sidelines of the summit.
South Africa has chosen solidarity, equality and resilience as the founding principles of its G20 presidency, which began on 1 December 2024. In preparation for the summit, South Africa held over 130 meetings and sessions to develop ways to implement its goals, codifying the decisions taken in a joint final declaration.
Whether Ramaphosa will succeed in securing the adoption of a joint declaration at the summit remains the most debated question. Several issues remain, including the title of the document.
On November 15, the United States warned South Africa through diplomatic channels not to adopt a joint declaration, lest it create the impression of consensus within the G20 on South Africa's proposed priorities "that are contrary to the policy views of the United States."
In the current situation, the South African presidency's plan is for the declaration to be adopted by consensus by the summit participants. "We believe that the G20 can send a signal that the world can move forward without the United States," said South African Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Ronald Lamola. However, he did not rule out that if the conditions for adopting a joint declaration were not met, the final document would be a presidential statement.
In the history of the G20 summits, which began to be held regularly in 2008, there has never been a situation in which the participants were unable to adopt a joint declaration.
South Africa's presidency of the G20 ends with the end of the summit and will be taken over by the United States on December 1.
Since Trump returned to the White House in January, South Africa has made significant efforts to secure his participation in the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
In May, Ramaphosa was on a working visit to the United States and was received by Trump in the Oval Office. The South African president has urged Trump to come to Johannesburg to take over South Africa's G20 presidency. Ramaphosa's words to Trump, saying "it is impossible to hand over the presidency to an empty chair", were widely reported.
Ramaphosa gave Trump a photo album of the best golf courses in the African country. The special edition, weighing 14 kg, was intended to persuade Trump to visit South Africa to play on one of the courses with Ramaphosa and also attend the G20 summit. After returning from the United States, Ramaphosa said he was impressed that Trump was willing to come to Johannesburg.
However, in early September, Trump announced that he would not attend the summit in South Africa and that Vice President J. D. Vance would lead the delegation. In early November, Trump solidified his stance, announcing that US representatives would not travel to Johannesburg for the G20 summit. He called the planned summit a "disgrace", drawing attention to the human rights situation of white people, who he said were being subjected to violence.
It is still unclear how South Africa will hand over the G20 presidency to the US. According to rules, the official handover ceremony is held on the last day of the G20 summit. The new presidency is usually given a ceremonial gavel.
The Chargé d'Affaires of the US Embassy in Pretoria has been seeking permission to attend the handover ceremony for the past two days, but the South African side has not yet agreed due to its low level of representation.
The South African president, as G20 chair, has set himself three key goals that he intends to prioritize on the global agenda. These include combating global inequality, fundamentally reforming the international credit system to reduce the debt burden of developing countries, and globally recognizing efforts to promote Africa's development as a critical task.
Ramaphosa is presenting a report on global inequality at the summit, commissioned by him by a group of experts led by Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz. It concludes that the gap between poor countries in the global South and high-income countries continues to widen. This is leading to increased tensions in the world and threatens dangerous shocks.
Measures to combat inequality include reforming the global financial architecture in favor of developing countries, helping them deal with their high public debt, changing the tax system for transnational corporations and wealthy individuals, and changing the rules governing the global economy to provide developing countries with greater access to the latest technology and knowledge.
Ramaphosa is also seeking commitments at the G20 summit to revise the criteria for international financial institutions to provide loans to developing countries, including lowering interest rates. As for Africa, the South African president believes that if the G20 is to achieve its mission of promoting a more stable and prosperous world, Africa's growth and development must be a priority.
The Trump administration has dismissed these goals as priorities for the G20 countries as they see them. After refusing to attend the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Johannesburg last February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that South Africa was “using the G20 to promote solidarity, equality and sustainability,” which is the DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) agenda and runs counter to US interests.
Another key issue raised by Ramaphosa at the summit was the creation of an international mechanism based on Africa’s resource base to extract, process and trade minerals that are critical to the global economy and its advanced industries. South Africa’s approach is to use foreign investment to build modern, high-value mining and manufacturing industries in African countries.
Africa holds up to 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves. These include platinum group metals, rare earth metals, lithium, cobalt and several other mineral compounds. They are used in high-tech products and are increasingly supplied to the energy and defense industries.
The mechanism proposed by Ramaphosa would significantly increase the revenues of African countries from critical minerals extracted within their borders, while also meeting global demand.
Following the official opening, where Ramaphosa will deliver a welcoming speech, the first session of the summit will focus on global inequality and the debt burden of countries in the Global South. Like all other sessions, this session will be held in a closed format. After the break, the second session of the summit will take place. It will focus on food security, disaster risk reduction and climate change.
The first day of the summit will end with an official reception.
The work will resume on 23 November. The third session of the summit will focus on critical minerals and artificial intelligence. The adoption of the final declaration of the summit is planned for this session, followed by a closing ceremony.
The G20, an informal association of the largest economies of developed and developing countries, was established in the autumn of 1999 to coordinate the efforts of leading powers to maintain global economic stability. Over the years, the G20 has focused more on geopolitical issues. The G20 summits began in 2008. The G20 brings together 19 countries (Australia, Argentina, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Canada, China, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Turkey, France, South Africa, South Korea, and Japan), as well as the African Union and the European Union.
According to the World Bank, the G20 countries are home to two-thirds of the planet's population and account for 80% of global GDP.
The group's activities are aimed at achieving global economic and geopolitical stability, creating conditions for sustainable growth, and reducing the risk of financial crises.