South Africa, current G20 president, is hopeful of a “substantial outcome” at the summit in Johannesburg over the weekend despite the US decision to not attend.
Describing the US move as unfortunate, Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s high commissioner to India, told StratNewsGlobal that it undermines the very ethos on which the multilateral grouping was formed post the 2008 financial crisis.
“The G20 is about being inclusive and decisions are made on the basis of consensus,” he said adding that “I think the irony of this position is that when you had the financial crisis of 2008 and when the G20 was elevated to the status of a summit level meeting, and the first summit was convened by the USA in Washington, so Washington played a pivotal role in bringing us all together.”
The US move was one among other challenges that the G20 had to face, Sooklal recalled.
“The past four summits, which have been presided over by countries of the Global South, have been the most challenging for a number of reasons. Firstly, when Indonesia inherited the presidency, we were just coming out of Covid. And, Covid was a major factor in terms of the impact it had, not just on the financial and economic architecture, but on various dimensions of our development trajectory as developing countries.”
Specifically about South Africa, Sooklal pointed to the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Gaza conflict and a United States that has “weaponized trade through tariffs.”
“South Africa has to deal with all of these. But I think what we have demonstrated as countries of the Global South that even though we steered the G20 at its most difficult period, we were able to find consensus and have substantive outcomes as countries of the Global South, demonstrating our ability to lead and to deal with complex issues in an inclusive manner,” he said adding that Pretoria is facing “multi-layered challenges”.
As the Global North and South, there is a need to work in an inclusive manner, to find a solution to a very challenging situation that we experienced, that impacted, not just on the Global North, which was the epi-centre of the financial crisis, but the impact it had on the world as a whole.”
