G20 Summit Opens in South Africa Without Trump

Many world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, are attending the Johannesburg meeting.

But Trump is boycotting, and his government says South Africa’s priorities (especially increasing global cooperation on trade and climate action) run counter to US policy.

The US president nevertheless loomed large at the event, the first summit of the group of major economies to be held in Africa, after producing a surprise unilateral US plan to end the war in Ukraine, largely in line with Russia’s goals.

Following an urgent call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer emphasized that such a plan needed “joint support and consensus of European partners and NATO allies.”

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Saturday that European leaders would meet on the sidelines of the summit to make clear that “there should be nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine”.

He said a follow-up meeting would be held at the EU-African Union summit in Angola on Monday and Tuesday.

“We think Thursday is an appropriate time,” Trump told Fox News Radio, warning Ukraine that there was a limited window of time to adopt his administration’s 28-point plan.

– Climate impasse –

Another issue awaiting the G20 summit was the deadlock in the COP30 climate negotiations held in Brazil.

Friday would be the last day of talks that have been going on for almost two weeks. However, they threatened to drag out the matter, as the petro-states were accused of resisting any reference to phasing out fossil fuels in the final text.

Despite the headwinds, host South Africa projected optimism that it would receive support for the G20’s goals of reducing economic inequalities, reducing the debt of low-income countries, providing aid for the transition to clean energy and creating a critical minerals agreement.

“As South Africa, we hope for the adoption of the leaders’ declaration, which will set a new and sustained agenda for the world, especially the G20,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement late Friday. he said.

Political negotiators from participating countries on Friday finalized a draft of the final joint text for leaders to agree on, sources told AFP. They were not authorized to disclose the contents of the draft.

Given the US boycott and Washington’s warning that no declaration be issued on behalf of the G20, it was unclear whether the document would be a traditional summit statement.

Ramaphosa, angered by the absence of the United States and the Trump government’s false claims of a “white genocide” in South Africa, was joined by other leaders who emphasized that the G20 is an important platform for multilateral cooperation.

“Multilateralism is our best, perhaps our only defense against disruption, violence and chaos. And South Africa has put multilateralism into practice,” European Council President Antonio Costa said at the pre-summit press conference. he said.

The US boycott reflects Trump’s decision not to send an official delegation to COP30.

Washington said at the end of the Johannesburg meeting that it would send chargé d’affaires from its embassy only for the handover ceremony because the United States will host the G20 summit next year at a Trump-owned golf club in Florida.

The G20 is a group of 19 countries, as well as the European Union and the African Union. It represents 85 percent of global GDP and nearly two-thirds of the world’s population.