South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the declaration from this weekend’s Group of 20 (G20) summit reflects a “renewed commitment to multilateral cooperation” as the rotating presidency moves to the United States under the cloud of another diplomatic row.
Ramaphosa, host of the Johannesburg summit, pushed through the declaration addressing global challenges like the climate crisis despite objections from the US, which boycotted the event.
Addressing the summit’s closing ceremony on Sunday, the president said the declaration showed world leaders’ “shared goals outweigh our differences”.
He stressed that the G20 summit declaration is a commitment to concrete actions to improve people’s lives all over the world.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the G20 summit and COP30 climate summit in Brazil showed multilateralism was very much alive.
Speaking in Johannesburg, Lula added that he was happy with the success of both events and now the decisions made at the G20 summit need to be put into action.
The summit, however, ended with another diplomatic spat involving the US after the host country refused to formally hand over the rotating presidency of the bloc to what it described as a junior US official, which it deemed an insult to its presidency.
“The United States is a member of the G20, and if they want to be represented, they can still send anyone at the right level,” South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said.
“It is the leaders summit. The right level is the head of state, a special envoy appointed by the president of that country or it could also be a minister.”
The US will be G20 president for 2026 and says it will host its summit at President Donald Trump’s golf club in Doral, Florida.
Trump boycotted the summit of leaders from rich and emerging economies on Saturday and Sunday because of allegations that the host country’s Black majority government persecutes its white minority – allegations that have been widely debunked.
The diplomatic rift between the US and South Africa deepened this week when Ramaphosa said the US had changed its mind and wanted to participate in the summit at the last minute.
The White House denied that and said US officials would attend only the formal handover of the G20 presidency. Although that didn’t happen, Ramaphosa said on Sunday that the presidency had moved on to the US
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara was still evaluating how to potentially deploy its security forces to take part in an international stabilisation force being planned in Gaza.
NATO member Turkiye played a key role in negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza, becoming one of the signatories of the accord signed in Egypt.
Speaking at a news conference after the G20 summit in South Africa, Erdogan repeated his view that the attacks in Gaza amounted to “genocide” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was responsible for them.
In the first G20 summit to be held in Africa, South Africa broke with tradition by issuing a declaration by the leaders on the opening day of the talks on Saturday.
Declarations usually come at the end of summits.
That declaration came in the face of opposition from the US, which has been critical of a South African agenda for the group that largely focuses on climate change and global wealth inequality.
Argentina said it also opposed the declaration after Argentinian President Javier Milei, who is an ally of Trump, skipped the summit.
The other G20 nations – including China, Russia, France, Germany, the UK, Japan and Canada – backed the declaration, which largely 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 green energy sources.
