Johannesburg, South Africa — On the first day of the G20 leaders’ summit, delegates adopted a declaration with “overwhelming consensus” on debt reform, climate change, and inequality — even as the United States, which was absent from the gathering, warned countries against doing so.
“Most leaders had indicated to the president that they were happy with the declaration, and that they were in full support of having the declaration adopted ahead of the rest of the summit,” Vincent Magwenya, the spokesperson to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, told reporters on Saturday. “It’s a success for all G20 member countries, it’s a success for the global south, it’s a success for the African continent and the world.”
It was far from what most expected — not just on the first day of the G20 leaders’ summit, but throughout the weekend as a whole. For months, South Africa’s presidency of the Group of 20 major economies has struggled to steer the world’s largest economies, as clashes over health, energy, and geopolitics repeatedly threatened to overshadow its agenda.