The first day of the G20 gathering of the world’s most powerful and industrialised economies kicked off in Joburg yesterday, attended by some of the world’s most influential leaders.
A possible deal that would have seen British Prime Minister Keir Starmer accept and hand over the final declaration of the G20 to the US on behalf of South Africa, due to the absence of US President Donald Trump, had to be abandoned at the last minute. This came after SA and other G20 leaders rejected a last-minute attempt by the Trump administration to have the declaration, unanimously adopted at the first sitting of the summit yesterday, handed over to a junior US embassy official.
The Sunday Times understands the US made an attempt to lobby the UK — which will chair the G20 summit in 2027 — to accept the declaration on its behalf. But summit delegates rejected US attempts to dictate terms of the handover, with insiders saying European leaders in particular were angered by the superpower’s “disrespectful” behaviour.
Minister of international relations and cooperation Ronald Lamola has meanwhile confirmed that SA plans to hand over the G20 presidency to the US in the coming days at the offices of the department of international relations and cooperation.
This comes after Trump said he would not attend the summit and would send neither Vice-President JD Vance nor secretary of state Marco Rubio.
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