Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: President Cyril Ramaphosa said on November 19 that the United States boycott of the G20 summit in South Africa between November 22 and 23 would not prevent the meeting of the world’s leading economies from going ahead. Pretoria and Washington have clashed over a range of policy issues, including South Africa’s summit agenda, culminating in President Donald Trump announcing at the weekend that no US official will attend the Johannesburg gathering.
“We will take fundamental decisions and their absence is their loss,” Ramaphosa told reporters in the coastal city of Cape Town.
“In many ways, the United States is also giving up the very important role that they should be playing as the biggest economy in the world,” he added. The summit marks the first time the G20 will convene on African soil.
South Africa — current G20 chair — wants to use its presidency to champion Global South priorities, including boosting climate resilience and tackling debt in developing countries, before handing the baton to the United States next year.
The US has labelled South Africa’s theme of “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability” as “anti-American”. “They’ve chosen to boycott, and boycotting never achieves anything of great impact, because decisions will be taken that will move the various issues ahead,” Ramaphosa, alluding to a decision on the cost of debt, a hot-button issue for developing nations.
Trump has singled out South Africa for harsh treatment on a number of issues since he returned to the White House in January, notably making debunked claims of white Afrikaners being systematically “killed and slaughtered” in the country. He ambushed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval office earlier this year, playing a video in which he alleged a campaign against white farmers by the post-apartheid government. South Africa’s government denies any such policy.
G20 represents 85 percent of the world’s GDP and about two-thirds of its population.
