South Africa judges G20 summit a triumph of multilateralism despite US no-show

TENSIONS OVER UKRAINE, CLIMATE CRISIS

Trump had also rejected South Africa‘s agenda of helping developing nations transition to clean energy, cut their crippling debt costs and adapt to climate change-induced weather disasters.

But Ramaphosa secured consensus from the leaders present, aside from Argentina, which did not object to a declaration being made without it. It was the first G20 summit in Africa and the joint declaration used the kind of language long disliked by the US administration.

The document stressed the seriousness of climate change and the need for adaptation, praised ambitious renewable energy targets and decried hefty debt service charges suffered by poor countries.

The summit came as tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine fracture the transatlantic alliance, and after unavailing climate talks at COP30 in Brazil, in which oil-producing and high-consuming nations prevented mention of fossil fuels driving the crisis going in the final declaration.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday that both the G20 and COP30 summits showed multilateralism was very much alive.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the United States was mentioned only in passing at the G20 summit and that it played only a minor role as new connections are being forged and the world reorganises itself.

“It wasn’t a good decision for the American government to be absent. But that’s something the American government has to decide for itself,” he said.