This weekend's G20 declaration shows a "renewed commitment to multilateral cooperation", South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday.
Ramaphosa, host of the Johannesburg summit, managed to secure agreement on a final text addressing issues such as the climate crisis, despite strong objections from the United States, which boycotted the gathering.
At the closing ceremony, he said the outcome demonstrated that world leaders’ “shared goals outweigh our differences”.
U.S. President Donald Trump skipped the 22–23 November summit, on the grounds of allegations, which have been comprehensively falsified, that the host country's Black majority government persecutes its white minority.
He had also rejected South Africa's agenda of helping developing nations transition to clean energy, reduce crippling debt costs and adapt to climate change-related disasters.
Despite Washington's opposition, Ramaphosa secured consensus from the leaders present, aside from Argentina, which did not block the declaration.
It was the first G20 summit held in Africa, and the final text used language long resisted by the U.S. administration. It highlighted the seriousness of climate change, the need for adaptation, praised ambitious renewable energy targets and criticised the heavy debt burdens facing poorer nations.
The summit took place as tensions over Russia’s conflict in Ukraine strain the transatlantic alliance, and shortly after a frustrating COP30 in Brazil, where oil-producing and high-consuming nations prevented any reference to fossil fuels in the final declaration.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said both the G20 and COP30 showed that multilateralism remains alive.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the United States “was mentioned only in passing” at the G20 summit, adding it played a minor role as new geopolitical connections emerge.
“It wasn’t a good decision for the American government to be absent,” he said.
The United States takes over the rotating G20 presidency after Johannesburg, but South Africa rejected a U.S. proposal to send an embassy official for the handover in Trump’s place, calling it a breach of protocol.
The White House accused Ramaphosa of refusing to facilitate a smooth transition, but South Africa’s Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said they had not received formal communication.
“We remain open … It’s up to them,” he said.
Lamola noted it was a major achievement that the declaration acknowledged the need for climate finance for developing countries.
Alongside the surprise agreement on the declaration, world leaders also discussed the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Trump’s proposed plan to end it in a series of meetings expected to continue in the coming days.
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Secret negotiations between U.S. officials and the Taliban over remaining American detainees have stalled, after the Taliban publicly tied any further releases to the fate of the last Afghan held at Guantánamo Bay, according to a report by The New York Times published on 26 January 2026.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has activated the state’s National Guard following the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, an incident that has triggered protests and intensified tensions between state and federal authorities.
Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez said on Sunday the country should not fear pursuing energy ties with the United States, as Caracas seeks to expand oil and gas production and attract foreign investment.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has strongly rejected a U.S. magazine report on the death toll during January unrest. Nationwide protests erupted in response to soaring inflation and a national currency crisis.
A mosaic portrait of Pope Leo XIV was illuminated on Sunday at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, continuing a centuries-old Vatican tradition marking the election of a new pope.
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India and the European Union have finalised a long-pending trade deal, both sides said on Tuesday, calling it the “mother of all deals” as they seek to hedge against uncertainty in U.S. trade ties.
The Trump administration has signalled to Ukraine that U.S. security guarantees depend on Kyiv agreeing to a peace deal likely requiring it to cede the Donbas region to Russia, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
France’s National Assembly has approved a bill banning access to social media for children under 15, a move backed by President Emmanuel Macron and the government as part of efforts to protect teenagers’ mental and physical health.
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