The withdrawal of the US from this week’s G20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg will not block negotiators from reaching a consensus on a draft declaration.
SA, which holds the G20 presidency in 2025, is pushing to finalise this before leaders arrive, seeking to avoid a possible last-minute brinkmanship. The sherpa-level talks, which moved into in-person sessions this week, are focused on compromise to secure unanimous support among the remaining members.
SA is looking for support from the EU and AU leaders with the French presidency fully backing the move towards a declaration despite the absentees, Business Day understands.
The presidency opened formal negotiations on the Johannesburg Declaration last week when sherpas launched virtual, line-by-line talks.
In-person negotiations started on Sunday at the fourth sherpa meeting, which is scheduled to run until Wednesday. These talks mark the most intensive phase of drafting before the summit of world leaders convenes in Johannesburg later this week.
“We have a strong belief that with those who are present consensus can be built for the leaders’ summit to adopt a declaration,” international relations and co-operation minister Ronald Lamola told reporters on Monday.
“The draft SA declaration focuses on the global development agenda. SA’s G20 presidency has four overarching priorities: the three task forces, key deliverables from the various working groups, as well as issues emanating from the finance track meetings.”
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. China’s president, Xi Jinping, will not attend either and will be represented by Premier Li Qiang.
“There’s nothing that precludes the members that are present to agree on a declaration. But if we do not achieve it, it’s still not a failure…. It has happened in other countries. It does happen in any multilateral platform and it will not be for the first time that the US has withdrawn on such a platform,” Lamola said.
SA’s declaration is focusing on four priorities and high-level deliverables, according to department of international relations and co-operation official Ben Joubert, who has been involved in high-level discussions within the sherpa track.
“At the moment … the leaders’ declaration [states] that we as SA [are informed by] our foreign policy; our stance on many of these issues, or on all issues, are informed by norms,” Joubert said.
“But so the sticky issues we have at the moment are where we differ from or where certain countries differ from others when it comes to the issues that deal with those norms in those multilateral instruments. So gender is an issue, some climate change issues in the Paris Agreement and sustainable development goals, of course, would also be a major issue.”
Joubert said most countries support SA’s goals to finalise a declaration for the summit.
A total of 42 countries are confirmed for participation at various levels. This includes 20 G20 members (excluding the US), 16 guest countries and six countries representing regional economic communities in Africa, the Caribbean and East Asia.
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