The first Group of 20 summit to be held in Africa opens on Saturday with an ambitious agenda to make progress on solving some of the long-standing problems that have afflicted the world’s poorest nations, according to the Associated Press.
Leaders and top government officials 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 some consensus on the priorities set out by the host country.
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 energy sources and harness their own critical mineral wealth — all in an attempt to counter widening global inequality.
“We’ll see,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on whether the G20 could prioritize developing 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 economy after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. boycott of the summit.
The United States will host the G20 in 2026 and President Cyril Ramaphosa said he would have to hand over the rotating presidency to an “empty chair”. The South African presidency has rejected the White House’s offer to send the U.S. charge d’affaires for the G20 handover.
