By Nitya Chakraborty
The two day G20 summit which ended at Johannesburg in South Africa on November 23 afternoon signalled two major political developments. First, the US, the leader of the democratic world got isolated geo-politically due to the decision of President Trump not to attend the summit and also not to send any US official to the conference. The summit went as usual with the full participation of the heads of other western allies of the U.S. and a joint declaration was also adopted on the basis of consensus.
The isolation of the U.S. from his western allies was evident from the remark of the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney after the conclusion of the summit that the world can make progress on a range of issues without the US and that the consensus reached at the G20 summit carries weight despite boycott by the USA. This was a strong statement from a close ally who is also a member of G7. This position of Canada as also very active interventions in the deliberations by the troika of Europe German chancellor Frederick Merz, French President Emanuel Macron and the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer showed that the G20 summit was a normal event despite US boycott.
The second important development, especially for Indian diplomacy is the emergence of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a trusted leader of the Global South. This was evident in his own address as also during interventions in the discussions. The Indian PM was quite comfortable in the company of the host South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Brazilian President Lula de Siva who have been in the forefront of the Global South in the fight against President Trump on tariff issue. Indian PM as a host of the G20 summit in India in 2023 opened the door of G-20 to the African Union. So he was also active in harnessing the agenda of development of the African nations which was the core of the 2025 summit. The absence of Trump helped the Indian PM in becoming more tension free during the deliberations at Johannesburg.
The G20 summit at Johannesburg which was the fourth in the cycle of Asian nations since 2022 ended but the holding of the next summit in USA to be hosted by Trump has raised lot of doubts though Trump has confirmed that he will hold it at his golf club in Florida. As a tradition since its inception, the gavel is formally handed over from the host of the summit to the next host country at the end of the summit. That way, on November 23,the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was supposed to hand over the gavel to the next host which was Donald Trump if he would have attended. This ceremony was not held on Sunday as scheduled earlier. Now, the gavel will be handed over to a senior official of the US government later from the South African foreign ministry.
Even after this hand over, there is a big problem. US, as a host country is supposed to take over the G20 presidency from December 1, 2025 and the next summit is scheduled generally in later part of November. But the issue is that the US will have to organize a lot of sessions during 2026 to take forward the agenda approved at the Johannesburg summit. That is the general way of functioning of G20 presidency. Now the problem is that the main focus was on Africa at the Johannesburg summit. The action plan includes lot of measures which were approved in the absence of USA. USA boycotted the summit complaining that the South African government was harassing the white Africans as a part of its racist attitude. In that political contest, how far the Trump administration will be sincere to implement the African agenda in 2026, that remains doubtful. Apart, the US midterm elections in 2026 will be held on November 3. If Trump’s Republican Party loses, Trump will be weakened politically though he will remain in his position with full Presidential powers till 2028 elections in November .
Leaving aside the US position, the G20 summit at Johannesburg certainly gave a big push to the implementation of the economic agenda focusing on speeding up the growth in the comparatively poor African countries. The host country deliberately emphasized more on urgent economic issues related to the living conditions rather than quibbling on political issues like conflicts on the solution of which the Global South had little control. As a result, the G20 declaration did not use much words on raging conflicts in the world and also avoided strong language or accusation.
The low emphasis in the G20 declaration on the serious conflicts and wars is evident from this para which says “We concur that, guided by the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter in its entirety, we will work for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ukraine, as well as ending other conflicts and wars around the globe. Only with peace will we achieve sustainability and prosperity,” said the 2025 G20 declaration.
So that way, the Johannesburg resolution was more economic agenda oriented as against political. The political stance was much diluted compared to the Declarations issued from Brazil summit in 2024 and even New Delhi summit in 2023, but the economic emphasis was more nuanced and specific this time calling for urgent measures for development of the African people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a good impression at the opening session through his elaboration of six initiatives for G20 to speed up inclusive and sustainable economic growth addressing the opening session. His call for G20 Global Traditional Knowledge Repository and G20 Global Healthcare Response Team caught immediate attention of the participants. Another interesting initiative which was widely welcomed by the African nations was the PM’s proposal for a G20 Africa Skills Multiplier Programme to train one million certified trainers over the next decade. It was a good development for India that the African nations could think of India also as an alternative for imparting them training.Apart from China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping did not attend the summit but the Chinese Prime Minister was there along with his battery of officials. In African continent, China is far ahead of India in investments and trade with the countries. Indian officials have to take the Johannesburg agenda seriously and give all assistance in implementing it to help in bridging the gap with China in both economic and political diplomacy in that emerging continent. (IPA Service)
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