G20 summit in South Africa ends without traditional handover amid US boycott
The G20 in South Africa has ended with the glaring absence of the United States â the next country to lead the bloc â after the Trump administration boycotted the two days of talks involving leaders of the worldâs richest and top developing economies.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared the summit in Johannesburg closed on Sunday by banging a wooden gavel on a block, in a G20 tradition. The gavel would normally be handed over to the leader of the next country to hold the rotating presidency, but no US official was there to receive it.
The worldâs biggest economy boycotted a summit meant to bring rich and developing nations together over President Donald Trumpâs claims that South Africa is violently persecuting its Afrikaner white minority.
The White House said it intended in a last-minute decision for an official from its embassy in South Africa to attend the G20 handover. But South Africa refused that, saying it was an insult for Mr Ramaphosa to hand over to a junior embassy official.
In the end, no US delegation was accredited for the summit, according to the South African Foreign Ministry.
South Africa said the handover would happen later, possibly at its foreign ministry. Mr Trump has said the US will hold next yearâs summit at his golf club in Doral, Florida.
Mr Ramaphosa made no reference to the US absence in his closing speech, saying: âThis gavel of this G20 summit formally closes this summit and now moves on to the next president of the G20, which is the United States, where we shall see each other again next year.â
The first G20 summit in Africa also broke with tradition on Saturday by issuing a leadersâ declaration on the opening day of the talks. Such declarations usually come at the end of the summit.
The declaration was significant in that it came in the face of opposition from the US, which has for months been critical of a South African agenda for the group that largely focused on climate change and global wealth inequality â focuses the Trump administration derided.
Argentina said it also opposed the declaration after Argentinian President Javier Milei â a Trump ally â also skipped the summit.
Other G20 nations, including the UK, China, Russia, France, Germany, Japan and Canada, backed the declaration, which called for more global attention on issues that specifically affect poor countries, such as the need for financial help for their recovery efforts after climate-related disasters, finding ways to ease their debt levels, and supporting their transition to climate-friendly green energy sources.
âSouth Africa has used this presidency to place the priorities of Africa and the Global South firmly at the heart of the G20 agenda,â Mr Ramaphosa said.
After his speech, he was hugged and congratulated by other leaders for hosting a summit largely overshadowed by the US boycott, and he was heard in a hot-mic moment that was not meant to be broadcast saying: âIt was not easy.â
South Africa has championed its G20 declaration as a victory for the summit and for international co-operation in the face of the Trump administrationâs âAmerica Firstâ foreign policy. However, G20 declarations are general agreements by member countries that are not binding, and their long-term impact has been questioned.
The 122-point Johannesburg declaration made just one reference to Ukraine in a general call for an end to global conflicts and the summit appeared to have made no difference to the nearly four-year war, even as leaders or high-level delegations from all the major European nations, the EU and Russia sat in the same room for the G20 gathering.
âMeeting for the first time on the African continent marks an important milestone,â French President Emmanuel Macron said, but he added the bloc was âstruggling to have a common standard on geopolitical crisesâ.
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