Movement One: South Africa at the G20 summit strengthened Africa's role in the world

The G20 summit has ended in Johannesburg, South Africa. Although the United States pointedly ignored him, this did not affect the authority of the site and the participants of the meeting adopted a record-breaking declaration. The main result can be called the strengthening of the role of the African continent and specifically South Africa in world politics, analysts interviewed by Izvestia believe. The Republic managed to reflect in the document the points reflecting the problems not only of African, but also of other states of the global South. The summit did not ignore the need for reform of the UN Security Council, as well as the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The interests of African countries

The G20 has always been a platform capable of bringing together representatives of the West and the global South on an equal basis. However, this time at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, held on November 22-23, political differences turned out to be stronger than the traditions of the forum: the White House boycotted participation in the event due to alleged harassment of the white population in South Africa. It is noteworthy that the next host of the summit will be the United States, to which the South Africans promised to pass the baton "without fanfare."

Argentina has shown solidarity with the United States. Although the country participated in the meeting at the level of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, it refused to sign the final declaration. Buenos Aires, in particular, declared a "unilateral" approach to the Middle East conflict. The document refers to the "occupation of Palestinian territory," while Argentina, like the United States, actively supports Israel.

It is curious that, contrary to tradition, the declaration was adopted at the beginning, not at the end of the summit. At the same time, the group members presented a rather impressive document in terms of volume: 30 pages contain a record 122 paragraphs. Declarations of this size have not been adopted since the G20 summit in St. Petersburg in 2013. For comparison, last year's document, approved in Rio de Janeiro, cost only 85 provisions.

The new declaration covers a wide range of issues, from working together to strengthen the international financial architecture, eliminate gender inequality, and expand the role of artificial intelligence in data management.

At the same time, since the G20 summit was held in an African country for the first time, the organizers tried to pay special attention to the problems that Africa is facing. In particular, we are talking about increasing efforts to combat desertification, land degradation and drought, reliable access to electricity and resources, food security, and increased investment in the economies of African States.

The G20 summit consolidated and expanded the role of the African continent in world politics, including due to the fact that earlier the African Union joined the format as an observer, where South Africa also plays an important role, said Leonid Tsukanov, an expert at the Russian International Affairs Council.

"The combination of interaction on the two platforms has made it possible to increase the effectiveness of promoting ideas and projects relevant to Africa, as well as to focus attention on issues related to the economic development of the region," he told Izvestia.

According to him, one of the goals of the South African presidency was to work out the consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic (from which the continent suffered quite a lot both economically and socially) and the grain crisis that arose in the global economy in 2022-2023. Despite the fact that the problem is still quite significant, the G20 has managed to take the first steps to close the gap.

South Africa plays an important role for other African countries, since the republic, unlike other states, has access to major international platforms, Laura Chkonia, a junior researcher at the Africa in the Focus of Russian Interests program at MGIMO, told Izvestia.

"After Cyril Ramaphosa came to power, South Africa has been trying to participate more actively in international politics, lobbying for the interests of African countries and other countries of the global South," she said.

An important block of topics was measures to ensure debt sustainability in low-income countries. The final declaration recognizes that high debt levels are an obstacle to inclusive economic growth in developing countries and limit their ability to invest in infrastructure, health, education and other areas.

Following the summit, the G20 also supported the expansion of geological exploration of critically important minerals, in particular in developing countries in accordance with the G20 framework program. According to the declaration, this framework preserves the sovereign right of mineral-rich countries to use their resources "for inclusive economic growth, while ensuring social and environmental governance, nature conservation, local participation, and reliable supply."

WTO reform

The G20 remains one of the most reputable international venues. The Group includes the largest economies, representing 85% of global GDP, 75% of global trade, and two thirds of the world's population. Moscow considers participation in the G20 important. She welcomed the adoption of the final document. Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Maxim Oreshkin, who represented the Russian Federation at the summit, stressed that the document takes into account important points, in particular, on food security and sustainable development. In addition, it talks about the need for comprehensive reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Oreshkin noted: The WTO has become a weakly functioning institution, and the actions of individual countries make it less efficient. His position is based on the current architecture of the organization's rules, which does not provide tools to overcome unilateral restrictions, including sanctions.

— We believe that fair and efficient trade is beneficial not only to Russia, but also to the whole world. What we are facing now is that the WTO, designed to promote fair trade, is now, unfortunately, in many ways a weakly functioning institution that does not allow these restrictions to be overcome," Oreshkin said. — For example, the same sanctions: New Zealand imposes trade restrictions against Russia for security reasons. What does this have to do with security, it would seem, where is New Zealand and where is Russia? Countries abuse various points, thus, of course, making the WTO less efficient. The task is to achieve higher efficiency through various changes in the principles and approaches of the organization's work.

It is the G20 that has the most opportunities to reform the WTO, says Alexey Portansky, professor at the HSE Department of World Economy and a leading researcher at IMEMO RAS.

— The G20 is authorized to speak out more than others about the state of the WTO, its rules and reforms. The statements in the framework of the G20 on the WTO are logical. Let me remind you that Russia has always advocated strengthening the WTO and the multilateral regulation of international trade," he told Izvestia.

The issue of WTO reform is an extremely complex issue that has been discussed since the beginning of the 21st century. An important task is the transformation of the decision-making mechanism. Since 1947, decisions have been made by consensus. At the same time, WTO reform is hampered by the contradictions of the world's largest economies, the United States and China.

— Until the two main players come to an agreement, no serious reform can begin. It is happening in small steps, as the current Director General of the WTO, representative of Nigeria Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said. There are minor steps, but by and large, China and the United States must agree among themselves to resolve the contradictions. Then serious reform is possible," Portansky added to Izvestia.

Settlement of regional conflicts

In addition to the WTO reform and the importance of solving economic problems, the final declaration also touched upon political issues. For example, the G20 summit participants called for expanding the UN Security Council to include countries in Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, and Latin America. It is noted that such a reform will make the body more representative. Russia has repeatedly stated that it supports the aspirations of India, Brazil and one of the African countries to join the UN Security Council as permanent members.

Of course, it was impossible to ignore the regional conflicts. The signatories, in particular, noted the need to achieve "comprehensive and lasting" peace in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Palestine and, of course, in Ukraine. On November 22, Kiev's allies discussed a 28-point U.S. peace plan in Johannesburg. A joint statement by the leaders of key European countries, as well as Canada and Japan, spoke of the need to "refine" it.

According to media reports, the Europeans are unhappy with the size restrictions for the Ukrainian army, territorial concessions to Russia, as well as the inability to fully transfer Russian frozen assets to Ukraine. On November 23, a Ukrainian delegation led by the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Ermak, held talks in Switzerland with security advisers to the leaders of Great Britain, France and Germany.

Vladimir Putin said that Russia had received a plan from the United States for Ukraine, noting that it could form the basis for a final peaceful settlement. However, this text is not being discussed with the Russian Federation in detail, as the United States still has not been able to secure the consent of the Ukrainian side.