G20 summit in Joburg to proceed without key world leaders

China’s President Xi Jinping has joined a growing number of world leaders not attending next week’s G20 summit in Johannesburg, with Premier Li Qiang set to represent Beijing at the meeting.

Xi’s absence places him among a small group of leaders skipping the summit.

US President Donald Trump, who was set to be replaced by vice-president JD Vance, and Argentina’s President Javier Milei will not attend, while Russia will send a senior diplomat instead of President Vladimir Putin, who remains subject to an international arrest warrant.

A Japanese diplomatic source told Business Day that the country’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, was expected to attend the gathering, the first of its kind in Africa, but her attendance was still subject to parliamentary approval, which had not yet been granted.

Advance teams have already begun preparing for her stay in Joburg, which could include a bilateral meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Xi last travelled to SA in 2023 for the Brics leaders summit, which was preceded by a state visit to the country.

Li’s attendance continues a recent pattern in which the Chinese premier represents the country on key international stages. Since taking office in 2023, he has led China’s delegations to the World Economic Forum in Davos, the East Asia Summit and last year’s G20 meeting in New Delhi.

“At the invitation of the government of the Republic of SA, premier of the state council Li Qiang will attend the G20 Summit in Joburg from November 21 to 23,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Union Buildings in Pretoria in July 2018. — Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Union Buildings in Pretoria in a 2018 file photo. Picture: GCIS/KOPANO TLAPE (Kopano Tlape/GCIS)

Trump’s snub of global co-operation and his preference for unilateral trade policies have weakened forums such as the G20, which was created to bring major economies together to address shared challenges.

Trump repeated the false narrative of genocide against white Afrikaners as the reason behind the withdrawal of the US. Melei pulled out of the summit in support of Trump.

Those adjustments narrow the field of sitting heads of state who will attend the leaders’ summit, but leave a core of major emerging-market leaders, including India and Brazil, in attendance to shape the event’s outcomes.

Ramaphosa downplayed the absence of one of its largest trade partners at the summit earlier this week, saying it’s “their loss”.

“The US needs to think again about whether boycott politics actually works because in my experience it doesn’t work.

“It is unfortunate that the US decided not to attend the G20. The US, by not being at the G20, one must never think that we are not going to go on with the G20. The G20 will go on. All other heads of state will be here. In the end, we will take fundamental decisions and their absence is their loss,” Ramaphosa told reporters.

“SA has successfully concluded meetings of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, brokering critical consensus for the continent’s development. We have successfully hosted 130 of the 132 preparatory meetings, all of which proceeded smoothly in a secure environment and without any safety or security incidents.

“The fourth sherpa meeting, the social summit and leaders’ summit will conclude SA’s calendar of meetings,” minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters on Thursday.

“Comprehensive safety and security plans for the leaders’ summit are being managed and co-ordinated through relevant national and provincial government departments as well as agencies.

“These institutions are all involved in safety planning, ensuring heightened security at points of entry, hotels, venues, robust security and emergency services at all nodal points.”