The G20’s role in fixing economic crises is threatened by geopolitical fractures and competition, leaders warned Saturday at a summit in South Africa boycotted by the United States.
European leaders attending the G20 summit — the first held in Africa — also scrambled on the sidelines to respond to a unilateral plan pushed by US President Donald Trump to end the war in Ukraine on terms favouring Russia.
“We are struggling to resolve major crises together around this table” and “the G20 may be coming to the end of a cycle,” French President Emmanuel Macron warned fellow leaders at the start of the summit.
“There’s no doubt, the road ahead is tough,” agreed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, adding: “We need to find ways to play a constructive role again today in the face of the world challenges.”
Chinese Premier Li Qiang said “unilateralism and protectionism are rampant” and “many people are pondering what exactly is happening to global solidarity”.
The summit’s host, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, downplayed Trump’s absence and argued the G20 remained key for international cooperation.
“The G20 underscores the value of the relevance of multilateralism. It recognises that the challenges that we face can only be resolved through cooperation, collaboration and partnership,” Ramaphosa said.
The G20 comprises 19 countries plus the European Union and the African Union, and accounts for 85 percent of the world’s GDP and two-thirds of its population.
– ‘Just’ peace in Ukraine –
But the Johannesburg summit was undermined by the American boycott, and China’s Li stood in for an absent President Xi Jinping, while Russia sent a Kremlin official, Maxim Oreshkin, instead of President Vladimir Putin, who is wanted under an International Criminal Court warrant.
The leaders present adopted a G20 summit declaration early in their meeting that covered climate, energy, debt sustainability and a critical-minerals pact — and a joint call for a “just” peace in Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and the “Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno — standing in for absent President Javier Milei, a Trump ally — objected to “how certain geopolitical issues are framed in the document”, specifically the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
But Ramaphosa noted that did not block the declaration’s adoption by participants, who also included Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
As soon as the opening ceremony was over, Starmer, Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz rushed into a meeting to discuss Trump’s plan for Ukraine.
That huddle was soon expanded to include other leaders from Europe, and from Australia, Canada and Japan, an EU official said.
“We are working on making the US plan something more able to be applied, based on previous dialogue,” a European diplomatic source told AFP.
Sources said there had been some communication with Washington, but no plans for any leaders to fly over to see Trump.
– US hosts next G20 summit –
On Friday, after a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Macron, Starmer and Merz stressed that any plan for Ukraine needed the “joint support and consensus of European partners and NATO allies”.
Trump has said he wants Kyiv to accept his 28-point proposals — which involve ceding territory to Russia and cutting the size of Ukraine’s military — by Thursday.
While the United States skipped the Johannesburg summit because it said it viewed its priorities — including on trade and on climate — as running counter to its policies, it still intended to take up the G20 baton for the next gathering.
Trump plans to stage that summit in 2026 at a Florida golf club he owns.
Washington has said it will send the US charge d’affaires from its embassy in South Africa only for the handover ceremony on Sunday.
But South Africa’s foreign minister, Ronald Lamola, said it would need to send a higher-ranking official of the “right level”.
“The president of the Republic of South Africa will not be handing over to the charge d’affaires from the US,” he said.
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