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Pretoria says it wants to ensure that “all voices” are heard and every perspective is considered during its presidency of the economic forum
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed concern about the failure of major world powers to reach agreement on resolving global challenges, including geopolitical tensions, wars, climate change, and hunger.
Ramaphosa made the remarks in a speech at the opening of a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Johannesburg on Thursday.
“Geopolitical tensions, rising intolerance, conflict and war, climate change, pandemics and energy and food insecurity threaten an already fragile global coexistence,” he said.
“Yet there is a lack of consensus among major powers, including in the G20, on how to respond to these issues of global significance,” the president added.
The two-day gathering of top diplomats from the G20 countries is taking place amid tensions over issues such as the Ukraine conflict and US President Donald Trump’s feud with Pretoria over a new land ownership law.
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South Africa currently holds the rotating presidency of the economic forum, whose members account for about 85% of global GDP. President Ramaphosa has stated that he intends to prioritize the development concerns of poorer countries, including addressing the impacts of climate change and rising inequality during his leadership under the theme of “solidarity, equality, and sustainability.”
However, earlier this month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected the African nation’s agenda, calling it “very bad,” and announced his decision to skip the Johannesburg event. Trump has also suspended aid to Pretoria over the alleged confiscation of land owned by white South Africans following the passage of an expropriation law.
In his address on Thursday, Ramaphosa defended his country’s choice of theme, arguing that “modern-day challenges can only be resolved through collaboration, partnership, and solidarity.”
“We would like our G20 presidency to be one in which all voices are heard and in which all views count,” he insisted.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who met with President Ramaphosa on the sidelines of the conference in South Africa, earlier said that the G20 should teach Western counterparts to “work productively together” rather than impose unilateral ideas.
On Wednesday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas assured Pretoria that the bloc is in “full support of South Africa’s leadership and ambitious G20 agenda.” However, she urged the country and other “African partners” to “push” Russia for a “comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in Ukraine.”
In an interview with Izvestia in Johannesburg on Thursday, Ramaphosa declared that South Africa will continue cooperation with Russia.
“We have relations with many countries in the world and it so happens that Russia is one of them, but also Great Britain, and France, as well as Ethiopia and Nigeria. So, we are open to dialogue with many. Excluding any countries from dialogue is not an instrument of our foreign policy,” he stated.
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