ISTANBUL
G20 leaders opened the final day of their South Africa summit on Sunday with a session dedicated to critical minerals, employment issues and artificial intelligence.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa chaired a plenary session titled “A Fair and a Just Future for All Critical Minerals; Decent Work; Artificial Intelligence.”
On Saturday, G20 leaders held two sessions, the first on inclusive and sustainable economic growth, covering building economies, trade, financing for development and the debt burden, and the second, “A Resilient World – the G20’s Contribution,” focused on disaster risk reduction, climate change, just energy transitions and food systems.
Marking the first G20 summit held in the African continent under South Africa’s presidency, with the theme “solidarity, equality and sustainability,” the leaders adopted a summit declaration without the participation of the US.
“Guided by the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter in its entirety, we will work for a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ukraine,” said the declaration.
The high-level gathering is scheduled to conclude with a closing ceremony at 1 pm local time (GMT1100).
The summit kicked off Saturday without a US presence, despite the country being South Africa’s successor in the G20 presidency, which normally requires a handover ceremony.
Earlier this week, Ramaphosa said there could be a “change of mind” from the US side and that discussions were underway, a claim that was immediately denied by the White House.
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’affaires of its embassy in South Africa.
He explained that the handover must happen at the head of state level, or at least a minister who “is properly designated by the president of the United States of America.”
“So now that they have assigned a charge, we’ve said DIRCO has equivalent officials of the charge, hence … we will do the handover… at DIRCO offices anytime from Monday,” he announced.
Earlier this month, Trump announced that he would not send an American official to Johannesburg for the meeting, accusing South Africa of “human rights abuses” against the white Afrikaner population – claims the South African government has repeatedly rejected as unfounded.
Relations between Washington and Pretoria have plunged to their lowest over disagreements on both foreign and domestic policies.