Africa’s first G20 summit opens with an ambitious agenda and a US boycott

JOHANNESBURG AP The first Group of summit to be held in Africa opened on Saturday with an ambitious agenda to make progress on solving a few of the long-standing problems that have afflicted the world s poorest nations Leaders and top leadership functionaries from the richest and leading emerging economies came together at an exhibition center near the famous Soweto township in South Africa once home to Nelson Mandela to try and find particular consensus on the priorities set out by the host country A multitude of of South Africa s priorities for the group especially a focus on situation change and its impact on emerging countries have met resistance from the United States which is boycotting the talks South Africa s agenda South Africa which gets to set the agenda as the country holding the rotating presidency wants leaders to agree to more help for poor countries to recover from climate-related disasters reduce their foreign debt burdens transition to green potential sources and harness their own critical mineral wealth all in an attempt to counter widening global inequality We ll see United Nations Secretary-General Ant nio Guterres commented on whether the G could prioritize advancing world countries and make meaningful reforms But I think South Africa has done its part in putting those things clearly upon the table The two-day summit will take place without the world s biggest economic system after U S President Donald Trump ordered a U S boycott of the summit over his indicates that South Africa is pursuing racist anti-white policies and persecuting its Afrikaner white minority The Trump administration has also made clear its opposition to South Africa s G agenda from the start of the year when South Africa began hosting G meetings U S Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped a G foreign ministers meeting in February calling the agenda all about diversity equity and inclusion and context change Rubio declared he would not waste American taxpayers money on that Diplomatic rift The monthslong diplomatic rift between the U S and South Africa deepened in the buildup to the main summit this weekend but while Trump s boycott dominated the pre-talks discussions in Johannesburg and threatened to undercut the agenda several of the leaders were eager to move on I do regret it French President Emmanuel Macron revealed of Trump s absence but it should not block us Our duty is to be present engage and work all together because we have so multiple challenges The G is authentically a group of members that includes nations the European Union and the African Union The bloc was formed in as a bridge between rich and poor nations to confront global financial crises While it often operates in the shadow of the Group of Seven richest democracies G members together represent around of the world s financial sector of international exchange and more than half the global population But it works on consensus rather than any binding resolutions and that is often hard to come by with the different interests of members like the U S Russia China India Japan the Western European nations France Germany and the U K and others like Indonesia Saudi Arabia and South Africa Guterres cautioned that rich nations have often failed to make the concessions required to strike effective setting or global financial amendment agreements Doubts over a declaration G summits traditionally end with a leaders declaration which details any broad agreement reached by the members but even that was proving hard to come by in Johannesburg South Africa reported the U S was exerting pressure on it not to issue any leaders declaration in the absence of the U S and instead tone down the final document to a unilateral declaration from the host country South African President Cyril Ramaphosa responded to that by saying we will not be bullied and has promised a declaration from all members present at the close of the summit on Sunday with or without U S input Even so the direction of the G bloc is likely to change sharply given that the U S takes over the rotating presidency from South Africa at the end of this summit as the Trump administration has derided the focus on surroundings change and inequality Trump has stated the U S will stage next year s summit at his golf club in Doral Florida The only role the U S will play at this summit the White House noted will be when a representative from the United States Embassy in South Africa attends the formal handover ceremony at the end to accept the G presidency South Africa disclosed it s an insult for Ramaphosa to hand over to what it considers to be a junior diplomatic official We have communicated to the American governing body that the president will not be handing over to a junior official of the embassy South African Foreign Ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri communicated The Associated Press And so as a impact we don t anticipate that there ll be any form of handover here at the summit Follow AP s coverage of the G summit in South Africa https apnews com hub g -summit Source