Tussle between US & South Africa disrupts G20 presidency handover process

The White House said on Saturday that South Africa is refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of its presidency of the G20 to the US. The allegation from Washington came after the South African Foreign Ministry said it would hand over the presidency to the US on “an appropriate level”.

Soon after the assertion, the G20 issued a joint declaration on the climate crisis, neglecting the American objection to it. On Saturday, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had pushed to issue a G20 leaders’ declaration addressing the climate crisis and other global challenges “despite consistent and robust US objections.”

She noted that the US President Donald Trump was looking forward to “restoring the legitimacy to the G20 in the US’ 2026 host year.” Earlier, South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told a news conference on the sidelines of the summit that the US wanted to implement the handover through the charge d’affaires of its embassy in South Africa.

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Handover issue

Lamola stressed that the South African Foreign Ministry (Department of International Relations & Cooperation, or DIRCO) wants to “differentiate between the handover and the deliberations that are currently happening” at the summit, which many leaders and their appropriately-designated officials attended.

He explained that the handover must happen at the head of state level, or at least a minister who “is properly designated by the president of the United States of America.” “So now that they have assigned a charge, we’ve said DIRCO has equivalent officials of the charge, hence … we will do the handover… at DIRCO offices anytime from Monday,” he announced.

Lamola maintained that this “cannot in any way strain relations,” since it will be done at an appropriate level. “We will accord them the equivalent respect by assuring that the person … who does the handover is an appropriate, equal, equivalent of the charge, he said. The only thing we said is that our president cannot hand over to a charge d’affaires in the leaders’ summit attended by so many heads of state,” he said.

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Relations between the United States and Pretoria have seen significant strain after Trump returned to the office. The ties plunged to their lowest after the Trump administration alleged that White South Africans are facing discrimination. Established in 1999, the G20 comprises 19 countries and two regional bodies – the EU and the African Union.

With inputs from agencies.