Leaders from across the world gathered in South Africa’s Johannesburg as President Cyril Ramaphosa gave opening remarks. Ramaphosa states that the South African presidency aims to uphold the integrity of the world’s top economies.
The summit began on Saturday, and PM Modi visited Johannesburg on Friday. During the summit, PM Modi also had meetings with other leaders, including a bilateral meeting with Anthony Albanese, the Australian leader. In a post on X, PM Modi announced his visit and the upcoming meetings with other leaders.
The Prime Minister pitched a six-point initiative during the summit. The most important pillar of the initiative is to tackle the drug-terror nexus. The second scheme aims to establish a global healthcare response team comprising trained professionals from member countries, ready for deployment. Focusing on the transformation of the workforce in the member countries, a G20-Africa-skills multiplier initiative has also been proposed.
A global traditional knowledge repository was also proposed to preserve the global heritage and culture. The most important suggestions were the creation of an Open satellite data partnership and the G20 critical minerals circularity initiative. On the first day of the summit, the members adopted a declaration to solve major global challenges, including the climate crisis. The summit has received several backlashes from the US, as the white house alleged that South Africa was preventing a “smooth transition” of the presidency.
The draft declarations have also been proposed without input from the US, which is supposed to host the G20 summit next year. According to Reuters, the White House spokesperson Anna Kelly has claimed that South Africa has issued the G20 leaders’ declaration without US input and despite its continued protest, leading to a major breach of G20 principles.
Donald Trump has further asked the leaders to boycott the summit over South Africa’s racist and anti-white policies.
