{"id":171,"date":"2025-11-26T18:11:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/?p=171"},"modified":"2026-02-02T10:12:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T10:12:58","slug":"g20-leaders-summit-in-johannesburg-closes-with-south-africa-handing-presidency-to-absent-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/26\/g20-leaders-summit-in-johannesburg-closes-with-south-africa-handing-presidency-to-absent-us\/","title":{"rendered":"G20 leaders\u2019 summit in Johannesburg closes with South Africa handing presidency to absent US"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ISTANBUL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The G20 summit in Johannesburg wrapped up on Sunday as South Africa handed over the rotating presidency to the US, which did not attend the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa formally closed the G20 summit, handing over the presidency to the US, \u201cwhere we shall see each other again next year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said South Africa used its G20 presidency to place the priorities of Africa and the Global South at the center of the agenda, building on the developmental focus of previous presidencies in Indonesia, India and Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa said South Africa is \u201ctruly honored and humbled\u201d to host the G20, the first time the summit has been held on African soil, describing the occasion as significant not only for South Africans, but all Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecognizing the importance of this milestone, we have sought to place Africa’s growth and development interests at the heart of the G20\u2019s agenda,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cthe greatest opportunity for prosperity in the 21st century lies in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African leader said harnessing this opportunity would depend on strong partnerships between Africa and the G20, as well as with the wider world, and highlighted the interconnectedness of nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the summit declaration goes beyond words, committing to concrete actions that benefit people worldwide and demonstrating the forum\u2019s value in facilitating joint action on issues of shared concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leaders on Saturday pledged in the declaration to work for a \u201cjust, comprehensive and lasting\u201d peace in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Palestinian territories, and Ukraine, condemning terrorism in \u201call its forms and manifestations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– US absence in leaders\u2019 summit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The summit started Saturday without a US presence, despite the country being South Africa\u2019s successor in the G20 presidency, which normally requires a handover ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, Ramaphosa said there could be a \u201cchange of mind\u201d from the US side and that discussions were underway, a claim that was immediately denied by the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola, addressing a news conference on the sidelines of the summit on Saturday, said the US wanted to implement the handover through the charge d\u2019affaires of its embassy in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that the handover must happen at the head of state level, or at least a minister who \u201cis properly designated by the president of the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo now that they have assigned a charge, we\u2019ve said DIRCO has equivalent officials of the charge, hence \u2026 we will do the handover\u2026 at DIRCO offices anytime from Monday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, Trump announced that he would not send an American official to Johannesburg for the meeting, accusing South Africa of \u201chuman rights abuses\u201d against the white Afrikaner population \u2013 claims the South African government has repeatedly rejected as unfounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relations between Washington and Pretoria have plunged to their lowest over disagreements on both foreign and domestic policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISTANBUL The G20 summit in Johannesburg wrapped up on Sunday as South Africa handed over the rotating presidency to the US, which did not attend the meeting. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa formally closed the G20 summit, handing over the presidency to the US, \u201cwhere we shall see each other again next year.\u201d He said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173,"href":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions\/173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olivenewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}