G20 summits don’t tend to have the same global draw as, say, the Cop (which overlapped with it this one) or with the annual get-togethers of the more powerful G7 gathering of the most powerful nations in the world.
The 2025 instalment promised to be something of an outlier in that regard. It was the first to be held on the continent of Africa and the first, arguably, to be held in a developing country, South Africa.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa had pulled out all the stops with an ambitious agenda, an intensive work programme with a very specific political orientation.
For him, as he said in his closing address, the very fact that the G20 was being hosted on African soil represented a chance to reorient priorities towards the Global South.
RM Block
“The greatest opportunity for prosperity in the 21st century lies in Africa,” was his repeated theme during all his public appearances.
The G20 did have a higher-than-usual profile, but for all the wrong reasons.
The hoped-for impact was undercut by not one but two separate interventions. The first was US president Donald Trump’s decision to boycott the conference on the spurious basis that South Africa’s Afrikaner white population are being persecuted and murdered in their hundreds.
Secondly, the summit also coincided with the announcement of Mr Trump’s contentious peace plan for Ukraine. That prompted a spontaneous meeting in the Nasre Exhibition Centre in Johannesburg of leaders of 11 countries who support Ukraine. They included French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK prime minister Keir Starmer and Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Media reports from the US in the past week have revealed the extent of its administration’s strategy to undercut the South African summit. That included not showing up for meetings and discussions, taking no part in negotiations and disputing any conclusions that were reached. Even the relatively innocuous slogan – Sustainability, Equality, Solidarity – was rejected by the US. It all culminated in not a single US official participating in the summit.
Discussion on the final day of the conference was dominated by two very modern themes – critical minerals and artificial intelligence.
Africa is one of the world’s main sources of rare-earth and critical minerals, which supply vital components in technology. However, supply chains for these materials have faced restrictions, with some blocs deliberately limiting access to them. China, in particular, has faced criticism.
European Council president António Costa put it bluntly on Sunday: “Weaponising these restrictions, as we have seen in recent weeks, runs counter to any claims for open and fair trade, or for the defence of the multilateral system.
“If some countries do not wish to be seen as reliable partners, we will take note and will continue to diversify and de-risk our supply chains,” he told the summit.
The Taoiseach, speaking to Irish media in Johannesburg on Sunday, said there was a need to share, and facilitate access to, critical minerals.
“There have been restrictions in access to such minerals. The European Union has developed an agreement with South Africa, Namibia, the Congo and other African states. It is a strategic partnership that benefits all,” he said.
The discussions on AI centred on the future of work in developing regions and how that would be impacted by the growth of the technology.
Mr Ramaphosa did not waver in expressing his convictions despite the sabotaging of his set piece by the US administration. He framed his priorities as ending poverty in all its forms, reducing inequality within and among countries and taking urgent action to combat climate change.
At the end of each summit the outgoing G20 president publicly hands over the reins to the incoming president. It didn’t happen on Sunday as the US is next in line. It should come as no surprise that next year’s G20 will take place in President Trump’s own golf resort in Florida. It would be hard to come up with a more stark contrast.
