G20 summit closes in South Africa after U.S. absence : NPR

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – This weekend's G20 leaders' summit in South Africa was unusual for several reasons. The first summit on the African continent was also the first time the US boycotted a summit of the world's largest economies.

It was also unprecedented in the sense that a group of disparate countries agreed to adopt a declaration at the beginning of the meeting rather than at its conclusion, and that there was no ceremonial transfer of power between the outgoing and incoming G20 presidents.

The Trump administration boycotted the event after Trump falsely accused the South African government of confiscation of white-owned land and allowing the killing of white Afrikaners. The US also objected to what it saw as the DEI summit's agenda – diversity, equity and inclusion.

Despite what some officials and analysts called Washington's efforts to derail the event, South Africa's International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola was upbeat as it ended on Sunday at a conference center near Johannesburg's famed town of Soweto.

“In short… this is a great success for our country,” Lamola said.

Earlier on Sunday, host President Cyril Ramaphosa declared the meeting adjourned, ceremonially tapping the gavel on the table.

“This G20 summit gavel formally ends this summit and now passes to the next G20 president, the United States, where we will see each other again next year,” he said.

He was generally expected to hand over the gavel to the nation's leader, who will assume the rotating presidency of the G20, but President Trump was not at the event. Washington asked Ramaphosa to hand him over to a junior embassy official, but the South Africans refused.

“I mean, this is a violation of protocol. This has never happened before and will never happen for the first time here in South Africa,” Ramaphosa's spokesman Vincent Magwenya told reporters.

The handover will now take place on Monday between South African and US officials of similar rank.

Joint Declaration

The US also told the South Africans that they should not release a joint declaration at the end of the summit and that if they did do anything, it should only be called a “chairman's statement”.

But Ramaphosa, who said ahead of the event: “We will not be bullied,” announced at the opening of the meeting on Saturday that consensus had been reached and a joint statement was issued without US participation.

While G20 statements are non-binding, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly criticized the move, accusing Ramaphosa of “failing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G20 presidency” and saying Trump hoped to “restore legitimacy” to the group next year. He said he plans to hold the event in Florida.

The declaration contained DEI language that the Trump administration did not like, emphasizing the threat of climate change, the importance of achieving “gender equality” and the debt burden facing poorer countries.

Argentina – whose Libertarian President Javier Mileyis a strong Trump ally and did not attend the summit in solidarity with Trump, but sent another representative – raised some objections to the language, but the declaration was ultimately released.

World leaders in attendance thanked South Africa for its leadership of the G20, and French President Emmanuel Macron warmly embraced Ramaphosa. But while Ramaphosa hailed the event as a victory for multilateralism, Macron said divisions at the summit were still evident.

And while Ramaphosa said South Africa used the summit to put “the global South at the center of the agenda” and “prioritize the issues that matter most to developing economies,” it was conflicts in other parts of the world that dominated the summit's sidelines.

European leaders issued a statement expressing concern about New US peace plan for Ukrainewhich some see as favoring Moscow, saying it needs “more work” and adding that proposed restrictions on Ukraine's military would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future attacks.

In addition, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed concern on Sunday about US military buildup near Venezuela.