‘See you all next year’: South Africa’s G20 Presidency comes to an end

South Africa’s year-long G20 Presidency has concluded, following the Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg where a declaration was adopted, despite strong opposition from an absent United States.

During his closing remarks on 23 November, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the agreement on a declaration “reaffirms our renewed commitment to multilateral cooperation.”

“Our shared goals outweigh our differences,” said Ramaphosa. “This gavel… formally closes this summit and now moves on to the next president of the G20, which is the United States, where we shall see each other again next year.”

It was Ramaphosa’s only mention of the country absent from the gathering of the world’s largest economies.

The declaration, which the US had warned nations not to adopt, reflects increasing strains between Pretoria and US President Donald Trump’s administration.

While some of the other nations’ heads of state did not attend, including China, Argentina, Russia, and Mexico, the US was the only country to boycott the G20 pretty much in its entirety.

However, 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 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,” said Merz.

Frictions and handovers

In a historic first, leaders adopted the declaration addressing at the opening of the weekend meeting: an adoption usually saved for the end of the leaders summit.

It highlighted the seriousness of climate change and the need for adaptation, praised ambitious renewable energy goals, and criticised the heavy debt service costs faced by developing nations.

These are things the Trump White House says goes against much of its agenda. Argentina, whose president, Javier Milei, skipped the summit, also refused to endorse the declaration.

Its foreign minister, Pablo Quirno, said: “Specifically it addresses the longstanding Middle East conflict in a manner that fails to capture its full complexity.”

The G20 communique said that nations “will work for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ukraine, as well as ending other conflicts and wars around the globe.”

On top of this, after announcing its ‘total boycott,’ the US government then indicated that they would have liked to attend the closing ceremony on 23 November.

The US expected Ramaphosa to hand over the Presidency to a chargé d’affaires, which is an acting ambassador. Pretoria has repeated that this is a breach of protocol.

“We have communicated to the American government that the president will not be handing over to a junior official of the embassy,” said Phiri.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly accused Ramaphosa of “refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G20 presidency”.

“This, coupled with South Africa’s push to issue a G20 leaders’ declaration, despite consistent and robust US objections, underscores the fact that they have weaponised their G20 presidency to undermine the G20’s founding principles,” she said.

The 2026 summit is scheduled to take place at the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort, which is owned by the Trump Organisation.