As he brought the gavel down on a G20 summit with a tongue-in-cheek dig at the United States, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa struck a defiant note towards the isolationist stance of President Donald Trump and his self-imposed exile from multilateral bodies Washington once championed.
The joint agreement by the 19 remaining countries, after Trump boycotted the meeting and told other countries not to sign a communiqué, “reaffirms our renewed commitment to multilateral co-operation”, a beaming Ramaphosa said on Sunday.
The 30-page Johannesburg declaration called for increased funding for renewable energy projects, more equitable critical mineral supply chains and debt relief for poorer countries, among other issues.