South Africa to hand over G20 presidency to US at an ‘appropriate’ ‘equivalent’ level
By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – South Africa on Saturday said it will officially hand over the G20 presidency to the US anytime from Monday, at an “appropriate” and “equivalent” level, after a boycott of the Johannesburg G20 Summit by US President Donald Trump.
South Africa’s International Relations And Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola said told reporters on Saturday: “We have communicated to the US embassy that South Africa welcomes the fact that the US now wants us to hand over to the US the leadership of the G20.”
“It was very late, and also they stated that there will be a chargé d’affaires US here in South Africa.”
Lamola said South Africa did not wish to further strain relations with Washington, but believed that given that the G20 summit is a gathering of high level leaders and officials, the handover should be conducted between two officials of the same level, not by Ramaphosa to a junior US official as Washington had demanded. “The handover must happen at the head of state level, or at least the minister who is properly disaggregated by the President of the United States of America,” Lamola said, the Mail and Guardian said.
“So, now that they have assigned a chargé d’affaires. We have said Dirco [department of international relations and cooperation] has an equivalent official of the chargé d’affaires, hence we welcome that they will know the handover. We will do it at Dirco offices any time from Monday, and arrangements will be made on the appropriate date where they can come. We will do the handover of everything.”
The Leaders Declaration was accepted by overwhelming acceptance at the summit by the over 42 nations present, with the exception of Argentina whose President Javier Milei skipped the forum in line with Trump, although he sent his Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno instead.
The declaration was accepted a day earlier than expected following discussions in the week that preceded the summit about its contents.
The minister said that the adoption of the declaration was a positive step towards ensuring equal communities and sustainable economies.
“The adoption of the Leaders’ Declaration today by world leaders is a step toward multilateralism and toward building a bridge between the Global North and the Global South,” said Lamola.
“But the declaration now takes it further for the whole African continent, and the compact with Africa that we have just now concluded makes this implementation practically possible.”
