Missing ‘Ubuntu’: On the G-20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg.
The U.S. boycott of the G-20 summit in Johannesburg was impolitic.
The G-20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg, the first ever held in an African country, was unique in many positive, and some not-so-positive ways. The summit has an added voice as the African Union was made a member during India’s G20 Presidency in 2023. As a result, the deliberations and the declaration seemed imbued by the spirit of the “ Global South ”, as they listed the multiple challenges the world faces including conflicts, deepening inequality and increasing economic uncertainty. In particular, the nations gathered called for a “just, comprehensive, and lasting peace” in “Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Occupied Palestinian Territory [and] Ukraine”, invoking the UN charter. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke at all three sessions of the G-20, suggesting six initiatives that India could lead in order to address some of those issues, particularly on the need to “reconsider” the parameters of global development. These initiatives included a Traditional Knowledge Repository, a G20-Africa Skills Multiplier Initiative (where India proposed to train a million people across Africa), a Global Healthcare Response Team, an Initiative on Countering the Drug–Terror Nexus, an “Open Satellite Data Partnership” to share agriculture, fishing and disaster-related information, and a “G20 Critical Minerals Circularity initiative”. The government asserted that it had a role in drafting the declaration, but would have been disappointed by the brief condemnation of terrorism when compared to the 2023 New Delhi declaration, given the Delhi blast and the Pahalgam attack.
The leaders present spoke volubly about the need for bolstering the G-20’s role in managing global challenges, but were silent on the absence of the most important dignitary — U.S. President Donald Trump did not just skip the Summit, but the U.S. government also boycotted it, sending only a diplomat as an observer. This is the first time that the U.S., that has cited tensions with South Africa over “ alleged discrimination” against “White minority farmers”, has walked away from the summit of the biggest economies. Aside from the irony of a “boycott” against South Africa, which suffered apartheid under the Afrikaner-led regime, the U.S.’s decision also raises questions over its commitment to the G-20 even as it takes over its presidency for 2026. The absence of the leader of the largest economy and the lack of universal criticism of the decision run counter to the hope and hype of the G-20 finally representing a more democratic world order over the last few years. The spirit of ‘Ubuntu’ or “I am because we are”, referred to in this year’s declaration, must be heeded by the very powers that would seek to sideline the grouping today.