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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa officially closed the Group of Twenty meeting in Johannesburg by banging a ceremonial hammer, following his refusal of a American suggestion for him to transfer authority to a relatively junior embassy official for the next summit in Florida.

Summit Marred by American Absence

The host nation portrayed the two-day event as a triumph for multilateralism, but it was diminished by a boycott by the US, which has repeatedly accused South Africa of showing bias toward white-minority Afrikaners—a claim that has been broadly refuted.

“We’ve met in the face of major obstacles and demonstrated our ability to come together, even in periods of hardship, to strive for global improvement,” the president declared in his final address.

Concluding his remarks, he announced: “This ceremonial hammer of this G20 summit officially concludes this summit and now moves on to the next president of the G20, which is the United States, where we shall reconvene next year.” This was Ramaphosa’s only mention of the nation absent from the gathering of the world’s largest economies.

G20 Declaration Focuses On Global Warming and Equal Rights

The G20 issued a declaration on Saturday emphasizing the need to address environmental crises and achieve “gender equality.” The Trump government had pulled out of the Paris environmental accord on the first day of his second term and has reversed many policies designed to tackle sexism, racism and homophobia.

White House Response

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly claimed the president of “declining to enable a seamless handover of the G20 presidency.”

“This, coupled with South Africa’s effort to release a G20 leaders’ declaration, despite consistent and strong American opposition, underscores the fact that they have weaponised their G20 presidency to weaken the group’s core values,” she remarked.

Transition Procedure Disagreement

South Africa had proposed to organize for an similarly ranked official to officially transfer the G20 presidency to the US at the foreign ministry. Authorities explained it would breach protocol for Ramaphosa to pass it to the US acting ambassador.

South Africa’s top diplomat, Ronald Lamola, told reporters: “We have done our part. We are done. The decision is theirs. If they want to come, we are available.”

Future Summit and Other Notable Non-Attendances

The 2026 conference is set to occur at the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort, which is owned by the Trump Organization.

Argentina, whose president Javier Milei did not attend, also refused to endorse the communique. Its diplomatic chief, Pablo Quirno, said: “In particular, it deals with the protracted Middle Eastern dispute in a manner that fails to capture its entire intricacy.”

The G20 document read: “We will work for a fair, inclusive, and enduring resolution in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ukraine, as well as ending other conflicts and wars around the globe.”

Group of Twenty History

The G20 was founded in the wake of the Asian financial crisis in 1999, with 19 countries plus the EU. The African Union was added in 2023.

The Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum were also absent from the summit. The Russian president faces an arrest warrant by the ICC, to which South Africa is a member state. The Chinese president has assigned participation in numerous global events this year to China’s premier, Li Qiang.