South Africa G20 ambitions run into Trump’s reality

Johannesburg, South Africa – The presidency of South Africa of the group of 20 (G20) should be an opportunity to obtain rich and powerful nations to pay attention to the concerns of the poorest countries, such as flourishing inequality, sovereign debt and lack of progress in the fight against The climate change.

But the richest and most powerful member, the United States, is not on board. The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, said on February 6 that the objectives of the G20 of South Africa were “very bad” and that he would not attend the meetings of next week with his g20 counterparts in Johannesburg.

In a broader attack against South Africa, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, reduced US financial assistance to the country, citing the disapproval of his land redistribution policy and his case as a genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice of Justice .

The United States position “seems to be aimed at ensuring that South Africa does not have a successful G20,” said Ongama Mtimka, interim director of the Raymond Mhlaba center for government and leadership at the Nelson Mandela University of the country.

Run after the 2007-08 financial crisis to include large emerging economies in conversations that had previously been limited to the group of seven industrialized nations, it is assumed that the G20 is a key place for economic and financial cooperation.

It is also considered vital to shape the response to climate change, since G20 nations represent 85 percent of the world economy and more than three quarters of climatic emissions.

But the hostility of the Trump administration questions the relevance of the forum, analysts said.

“The most important question that one has to do is what is G20 without the United States?” David Monyae said, director of the Africa-China Studies Center at Johannesburg University.

“The implications are much larger than South Africa … It means the collapse of the G20 process itself,” he said. “I don’t think we are there yet, but … it seems that we are crawling towards that.”

China offers support

President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that he wanted to use the G20 presidency of his country to address climate change and fairer finances for the poorest nations. South Africa, like many other countries, spends more in the debt service than in health.

The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chrispin Phiri, said that Pretoria enjoyed the “strong support of other G20 countries” for his agenda and “would continue with our subject and priorities”, regardless of the objections of the USA.

Mtimka said that Washington’s attitude would probably benefit his adversaries, delivering the leadership of the G20 to China and Russia “in a silver dish.”

The president of China, Xi Jinping, played a central role at the last G20 summit in Brazil, announcing a series of measures to support emerging economies.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi will attend the meetings of February 20 and 21 in Johannesburg, as well as Sergey Lavrov in Russia.

“China gives great importance to the cooperation of the G20 and is willing to work with all the parties to support the work of the Presidency of South Africa,” said Beijing’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Interfax news agency in Russia cited on Monday an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying that several members of the developing world had already approached Russia with proposals and were eager to meet with Lavrov in Johannesburg.

The G20 power dynamics is complicated by the superposition of membership with the BRICs, a block that formed to challenge a world order dominated by the United States and its western allies. China, Russia, Brazil, India and South Africa are members.

Last month, Trump warned BRICs members so that they would not replace the US dollar as a reserve currency, repeating a threat of 100 percent rates that had made weeks after winning the presidential elections of November 5.

The meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the G20 must follow a meeting of finance ministers on February 26 and 27, that the United States Secretary of the United States, Scott Besent, has not said if he will attend.

South Africa has the presidency of the G20 until December, when it is delivered to the United States. A leaders summit is scheduled for November.