WATCH | FULL SPEECH: President Ramaphosa opens the first G20 on African soil

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa opened the first G20 Leaders Summit on African soil, welcoming heads of regional economic communities, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and other guests under the 2025 presidency theme of solidarity, equality, and sustainability. He outlined key priorities including strengthening disaster resilience, ensuring debt sustainability for low-income countries, mobilizing finance for a just energy transition, harnessing critical minerals for inclusive growth, and addressing inequality, unemployment, and AI, while emphasizing the Global South's development needs and reforms to international financial institutions. The summit affirms multilateralism's role in tackling shared global challenges like climate change, poverty, and geopolitical tensions, committing G20 leaders to inclusive growth, UN Sustainable Development Goals, and leaving no one behind.