South African President Cyril Ramaphosa opened the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday (22/11/2025) by defending multilateralism in the face of “threats facing humanity today.” “This G20 leaders’ summit has a responsibility not to allow the integrity and credibility of the G20 to be weakened,” Ramaphosa said at the opening of the plenary session of the meeting, which is being held until Sunday at the Nasrec Exhibition Centre. “In fact, we must come out of this summit feeling that the G20 has been strengthened.”
Today, Saturday, the G20 Leaders’ Summit (a group of developed and emerging countries) kicked off in Johannesburg, under the rotating presidency of South Africa, and witnessed the absence of the United States from the discussions. Ramaphosa added in his speech to the rest of the leaders at this summit, including American Donald Trump, that “the G20 emphasizes the value and importance of multilateralism.”
Ramaphosa calls for a joint declaration
On the first day, Heads of State and Government will address issues such as inclusive and sustainable economic growth, trade, development financing and debt of poor countries, in the context of increasing geopolitical division. About forty leaders will participate in the summit, including leaders of the G20 and invited countries, despite the absence of US President Donald Trump for various reasons. China, Xi Jinping; Argentina, Javier Miley; Russia, Vladimir Putin; and Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum.
The South African leader, whose country holds the current presidency of the group, also defended the need to adopt the Leaders’ Declaration, to ensure that this document would send an “important signal” to the world that “multilateralism” can and must deliver results. It is multilateralism that was already called for at the preparatory meeting of ministers in February.
A statement issued by the British government today confirmed that European countries and other allies of Ukraine will also meet in parallel with the G20 summit in Johannesburg to discuss the peace plan drawn up by the United States to end the war with Russia.
LGC (AFP, EFI)
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