SA hosts a successful G20 Leaders' Summit: Professor Christopher Isike

The article discusses the low-key handover of South Africa's G20 presidency to the United States, scheduled for Tuesday in Pretoria by senior officials, following South Africa's insistence that the US not involve its embassy chargé d'affaires in a formal ceremony with President Ramaphosa. The recent G20 summit concluded with a joint declaration on multilateral cooperation, despite the US boycott, garnering strong support from G7 nations like France, Canada, the UK, and Japan. Experts Professor Chris Isike and Dr. Charles Singala analyze the summit's successes, including policy wins on critical minerals, infrastructure, climate agreements, and soft power gains for South Africa and the Global South. They highlight the declaration's themes of solidarity, inclusivity, and sustainability, which align with initiatives like the Africa engagement framework, African Continental Free Trade Area support, and debt restructuring for the Global South—potentially viewed by incoming US President Donald Trump as 'anti-American' or DEI politics. Concerns arise over Trump's ability to undo these outcomes, though his lame-duck status and internal party defiance may limit his influence. The UK, as the next G20 host after the US, is expected to uphold multilateral values and help sustain the declaration. A key focus is the new G20 critical minerals framework, seen as a political milestone for value chain advancement and beneficiation in mineral-rich African countries, with potential US interest under Trump if negotiated from strength. Experts stress the urgent need for a unified African position on critical minerals to counter cherry-picking by superpowers like the US, China, and Russia, building on successes in areas like digitalization and AI. This momentum ties into the ongoing AU-EU summit in Rwanda, where a collective African approach could leverage Europe's engagement and secure better deals, including from the US, emphasizing strategic unity to avoid marginalization.