South Africa’s leadership successfully pushed through a “renewed commitment to multilateral cooperation” at this weekend’s G20 summit in the face of a boycott by the US, President Cyril Ramaphosa told delegates.
The White House had pulled any US officials from attending as US President Donald Trump doubled down on disputed claims that South Africa’s government is persecuting its white minority.
Trump had opposed South Africa’s agenda of supporting developing nations transitioning to clean energy, addressing their spiraling debt costs, and adapting to climate change-induced weather disasters. Envoys from the G20 drew up a draft leaders’ declaration on Friday without US involvement, sources told Reuters, a fact that upset the Trump administration, which described it as “shameful” that Pretoria had moved ahead without US input.
Even though China’s Xi Jinping was absent, Eric Olander, editor of The China-Global South Project, argued that Chinese Premier Li Qiang “took full advantage” of the US boycott and shaped the final declaration in ways that “aligned with Beijing’s priorities on multilateralism, debt, and, most notably, critical minerals.”