""We've met in the face of significant challenges and demonstrated our ability to come together, even in times of great difficulty, to pursue a better world.""
""This gavel of this G20 summit formally closes this summit and now moves on to the next president of the G20, which is the United States, where we shall see each other again next year.""
""This, coupled with South Africa's push to issue a G20 leaders' declaration, despite consistent and robust US objections, underscores the fact that they have weaponised their G20 presidency to undermine the G20's founding principles,""
Cyril Ramaphosa closed the Johannesburg G20 summit by banging a gavel after rejecting a US proposal that the presidency be handed to a relatively junior US embassy official. South Africa presented the two-day event as a triumph for multilateralism, but the summit was marred by a US boycott and persistent accusations that South Africa discriminates against white Afrikaners, a claim widely discredited. The G20 issued a declaration emphasising the need to tackle climate change and achieve gender equality. The White House accused South Africa of refusing to facilitate a smooth transition and of weaponising the G20 presidency. South Africa offered an equivalent junior diplomat handover at the foreign ministry, and officials said protocol would be breached if the president handed the G20 presidency to the US acting ambassador.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]