Minister of international relations and cooperation Ronald Lamola has confirmed that South Africa plans to hand the presidency of the G20 over to the US in the coming days, after the world’s largest economy failed to pitch for the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg.
This comes after US President Donald Trump said he would not attend the summit and would send neither Vice-President JD Vance nor secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Briefing reporters on the sidelines of the summit on Saturday afternoon, Lamola said: “We have communicated to the US embassy that South Africa welcomes the fact that the US now wants to hand over to the US the leadership of the G20. And they have communicated this very late. They stated that it will be the chargé [d’affaires] of the US mission here in South Africa [who will receive it].”
On the first day of the summit at the Nasrec Expo Centre, the US changed tack from its boycott of the gathering of world leaders, requesting to attend and participate in the handover of the presidency of the G20 through a chargé d’affaires.
Lamola said the handover of the G20 presidency from SA to the US, as the hosts of the 2026 G20 Leaders’ Summit and related activities, will take place at the offices of the department of international relations and cooperation (Dirco).
“This is the leaders’ summit. Heads of state [are here], and the heads of state who are not here have designated appropriate officials who are engaging in this platform. We want to differentiate between the handover and the deliberations that are currently happening,” he said.
Pretoria declined the US request for a chargé d’affaires to participate in the handover ceremony at the summit, saying this was not in accordance with protocol as the ceremony would only allow President Cyril Ramaphosa to hand over to Trump, who refused to attend.
“The handover must happen at a head-of-state level or at least a minister who is properly designated by the president of the USA. So now that they have assigned a chargé, we have said Dirco is equivalent officials of the chargé. Hence we welcome the fact that they will now receive it. We will do it at the Dirco offices any time from Monday,” Lamola said.
Arrangements will be made on the appropriate date when the US can hold a ceremony to receive the presidency, he said.
“We are not going to show any disrespect to the US. We will afford them the equivalent respect by ensuring that the person who receives and does the handover is an appropriate, equal equivalent of the chargé … The only thing we’ve said is that our president cannot hand over to a chargé in a leaders’ summit attended by so many heads of state.”
The G20 Leaders’ Summit Declaration acknowledges the line of G20 presidents established for the coming years of G20 activities.
“We thank South Africa for its leadership this year. We commit to working together under the United States’ presidency in 2026 and meeting again in the United Kingdom in 2027 and in the Republic of Korea in 2028. We welcome Saudi Arabia’s ambition to advance its turn for hosting the G20 presidency in the next cycle.”
TimesLIVE
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