SA positive its G20 presidency will adopt leaders’ declaration when term ends

South Africa is positive that its G20 presidency will adopt a leaders’ declaration when the one-year term ends this week.

The G20 Leaders’ Summit is set to be hosted in Johannesburg at the weekend, where heads of state from the bloc will hopefully sign off on a document on how to address economic growth, trade reforms, ballooning debt, the Africa agenda, food security, energy security and climate change.

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The country’s optimism about reaching consensus on policy priorities to take forward comes amid the United States (US)’s decision to boycott the gathering.

US President Donald Trump has also allegedly moved to oppose a G20 Johannesburg leaders’ declaration in his deliberate absence.

Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana said the declaration rests on the ongoing final round of negotiations and not on Trump’s comments.

“The fact that the USA is not here does not preclude a declaration. If the countries that are participating now agree on a declaration, then they can say this is a declaration of the countries that participated.”

Amid speculation that Trump will neglect the Africa agenda flag-shipped by South Africa, Minister of International Relations Ronald Lamola said not all is lost.

“With all the issues that we’ve put on the table, they will still be part of the conversations of the G20 and other multilateral forums because some of them have already been taken over by other platforms, like the UN [United Nations].”

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