G20 Leaders Adopt Declaration at First Summit Held in Africa, With the United States Absent
On November 22, 2025, the 20th G20 Leaders' Summit opened in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa, the first G20 summit ever held on the African continent. The summit's chair, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, announced the adoption of the Leaders' Declaration on the opening day, breaking with the tradition of adopting the declaration at a summit's close. The United States boycotted the summit: President Donald J. Trump did not attend and the U.S. sent no delegation. Chinese Premier Li Qiang attended the summit.
Ramaphosa said at the opening that the adoption of the declaration sent an important signal to the world that multilateralism can and does deliver, a message of hope and solidarity. The two-day summit was held under the theme "Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability," and the declaration opens by invoking the African philosophy of Ubuntu, "I am because we are."
The 122-point declaration says the leaders will work for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Ukraine, and condemns all attacks against civilians and infrastructure. It calls for stronger disaster resilience, for helping low-income countries address debt vulnerabilities through the G20 Common Framework, and for just energy transitions, noting that more than 600 million Africans have no access to electricity, and it supports the goal of tripling global renewable energy capacity. The declaration also endorsed the G20 Critical Minerals Framework and welcomed the commitments to the Eighth Replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The declaration closes by looking forward to continuing the G20's work under the United States Presidency in 2026.
Source: G20 Johannesburg Summit
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：南非约翰内斯堡市中心天际线（资料照片）。Mark Hillary摄，CC BY 2.0，经Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The downtown Johannesburg skyline in South Africa (file photo). By Mark Hillary, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
