The decision of US President Donald Trump to boycott the upcoming two-day summit of G20 leaders in Johannesburg, the economic capital of South Africa with a population of six million, could return to Washington as a diplomatic boomerang.
Namely, despite the decisive messages that Trump personally will not step foot on the first summit of G20 leaders on African soil, and Washington’s earlier warnings to Pretoria not to approach the drafting of the final declaration, things in Johannesburg, even before the start of the meeting, started moving in the opposite direction from what was desired in the centre of power of the world’s largest economy.
This is because the delegates of the G20 participating countries have already adopted the draft of the final declaration and included the fight against “climate change” in the text of that preparatory document—a topic about which Trump and his administration do not have many nice words. (https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/world/20251122/g20-envoys-agree-draft-declaration-despite-us-boycott).
If the draft turns into an official declaration, does the formation that represents almost two-thirds of the world’s population, generates 85 percent of global GDP and performs 70 percent of international trade defy America? The answer is many times uncertain. First of all, because the question is what can happen with the “draft”, the upcoming weekend in Johannesburg?
Aside at the same time, what could be the operational weight of the G20 final declaration, which is politically strongly desired in Pretoria, and “inadmissible” according to Washington. Inadmissible, because according to the structure of the G20, such documents are adopted by consensus, which cannot be this time, according to Washington, because of the “empty chair” of the USA.
As things stand now, Washington insists on two things. One is that representatives of the US embassy in Pretoria will come to the G20 only for the formal handing over of the chairman’s role, since America takes over that role from December 1. The other, that Washington will not participate in the official talks at the gathering, the theme of which is “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability”.
How then could Washington evaluate the upcoming debates of the participants at the G20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg? With indifference, or with some other criterion of evaluation in bilateral and international relations? The G20 boycott represents a serious new precedent in American foreign policy, which the Trump administration did not apply to some other international organizations, forums and institutions.
It will therefore be interesting to see how the US comes up with the key theme of the G20 leaders’ summit in Miami next year. Equally, as well as who will be the desired guests on that occasion.
