Ramaphosa Rejects US Warning Over G20 Joint Declaration

South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa has insisted that the Group of 20 nations will make a joint declaration at the end of their summit in Johannesburg this weekend despite warnings against that from the United States.

He said that South Africa, the summit host country will not give in to pressure from the Trump administration to water down any final decisions.

South Africa, which is the first African nation to hold the rotating presidency, is hoping to use its summit to make progress on issues especially affecting poor countries. That includes mitigating the impact of climate change and weather-related disasters, easing debt burdens for developing countries and confronting global wealth inequality.

Speaking to reporters, Ramaphosa said that the first G20 summit in Africa was moving forward without the US, which is boycotting the two-day meeting of world leaders that opens Saturday over Trump’s claims that Ramaphosa’s government is violently persecuting a white minority.

The US sent a note last weekend confirming none of its officials would be attending the G20 leaders’ summit on 22 to 23 November, the first to be held in Africa, and that it would not accept any declaration issued at the end of it.

A South African G20 ambassador said this week that the US had sent diplomatic communication to South Africa advising that that “there should be no declaration adopted” at the summit because the U.S. was not there and therefore there would be no consensus.

Instead, the US wants a toned-down statement from South Africa only to cap the summit, which is a culmination of more than 120 meetings that Africa’s most advanced economy has hosted since it took over the G20’s rotating presidency for this year.

Pushing back against the US, Ramaphosa told reporters, “We will have a declaration.”

“The talks are going extremely well. I’m confident we are moving towards a declaration, and they are now just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.

“Without the United States, the whole process of the G20 is moving forward. We will not be bullied. We will not agree to be bullied.”

Cyril Ramaphosa

Prior to Ramaphosa’s remarks, Chrispin Phiri, a Spokesperson for South Africa’s foreign ministry, said, “Washington’s absence negates its role over the G20’s conclusions.”

“But we cannot allow coercion by absentia to become a viable tactic; it is a recipe for institutional paralysis and the breakdown of collective action.”

Chrispin Phiri

Trump has repeatedly targeted South Africa for criticism since he returned to office. He held a tense meeting with Ramaphosa at the White House in May, when he confronted South Africa’s leader with baseless claims of widespread violence against Afrikaners in South Africa.

The US President has repeated his claims in the leadup to the G20 that Ramaphosa’s Black-led government is pursuing racist anti-white policies against the Afrikaner white minority. Trump’s allegations have have been widely rejected, but the US President cited them when he said the US government would boycott the summit in South Africa’s biggest city.

Ramaphosa To Hand Over G20 Presidency To “Empty Chair”

The US will take over the rotating presidency of the G20 from South Africa and Ramaphosa has previously said that he will have to pass it to Trump’s “empty chair” in Johannesburg, though he said he would talk to Trump after the summit.

“I have said in the past I don’t want to hand over to an empty chair. But the empty chair will be there, probably symbolically hand over to that empty chair and talk to President Trump and say, ‘Even though you are not here, I am now handing over to you the reins of chairing or being president of the G20.’ Because the G20 as an entity continues, whether they are here or not.”

Cyril Ramaphosa

The US has previously derided South Africa’s priorities for the group, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipping a G20 foreign ministers meeting in February and dismissing South Africa’s priorities as being about diversity, equity and inclusion and climate change.

Rubio said he would not waste U.S. taxpayer money on that agenda.Other leaders are also skipping the G20 summit, including China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Argentina’s Javier Milei, but they have sent delegations to represent them.