JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 21st (AMSP/CGTN) – – South Africa’s president opened the G20 meeting this Friday, calling for multi-lateralism and the application of international law in resolving world crises. Cyril Ramaphosa also outlined his hopes for South Africa’s 2025 presidency of the global body.
During his address at the first G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting under South Africa’s presidency, Cyril Ramaphosa spelled out some of the world’s biggest challenges… and how they can only be resolved through unity, not division.
“Geopolitical tensions, rising intolerance, conflict and war, climate change, pandemics and energy and food insecurity threaten an already fragile global coexistence. These challenges are interconnected. They require responses that are inclusive and coordinated,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa further asserted that the G20 needs to renew its efforts to advance debt sustainability, with a particular emphasis on African countries — many of which are seeing their development being crippled by having to prioritise loan repayments.
“We should take action to ensure debt sustainability for low-income countries. Developing economies are currently experiencing the highest borrowing costs in nearly two decades. Debt payments are crowding out vital domestic expenditure and diverting critical resources away from development. More than 3.3 billion people live in countries where interest payments on debt exceed education or health spending. The G20 needs to renew its efforts to advance debt sustainability, with a particular emphasis on African countries,” he said.
With Africa playing a greater role in global development than ever before, and with the AU now a full member of the G20, Ramaphosa said it was significant that the G20 Leaders’ Summit later this year will be convened for the first time on African soil.
“This highlights the growing importance of the continent in global economic, political and environmental discussions. Africa is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies and faces unique challenges, such as the impact of climate change, development needs and the effects of global trade dynamics,” he pointed out.
Ramaphosa said his priorities for South Africa’s presidency wouldn’t be just on debt sustainability, but also on other issues that African governments are concerned about, such as climate change and getting a fair deal for Africa’s natural resources.
Ministers and other high-level delegates are set to spend two days discussing a range of issues affecting the globe.
South Africa said it was satisfied with the turnout, despite the American secretary of state’s decision not to attend over ongoing tensions with the host.
“So in terms of participants by foreign ministers at any ministerial, we’ve got a really high ministerial turnout. Fifteen of the substantive members of the G20 are at ministerial level, five are deputy ministerial level, well four, and then one at the de chargé level. So we have a really good turnout in terms of the participation and some of our key BRICS partners, for example, India is at ministerial level, Brazil as well. So I think from a G20 ministerial level participation we are quite satisfied with that,” said Zane Dangor, Director General of International Relations and Cooperation.
On another issue, China and Russia had a separate short bilateral earlier in the day. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, to discuss a wide range of topics.
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