The USA still has clout in the world Though it was the only absentee among the members at the G20 Summit, it still dominated, because all of the decisions await re-endorsement at the new G20 Summit, which is in the USA. US President Donald Trump not only refused to attend, which would have been snub enough, but he refused to send any sort of delegation. The reason he gave for this was because it was being hosted on Johannesburg, while he felt the South African government of President Cyril Ramaphosa persecutes white settlers. The reason he might have wished to avoid the Summit was the potentially awkward meetings with heads of government of countries adversely affected by the tariffs he had imposed on them. Thus, the world’s largest economy stayed away from a meeting of the world’s largest economies, including the founding members of BRICS. The host is a BRICS founder.
Mr Trump’s most recent focus on Africa has not recognized the economic potential of the continent. Instead, it has involved his peculiar brand of rabble-rousing with racist undertones. When he met Mr Ramaphosa in the White House earlier in the year, he berated him for the forcible dispossession of white farmers. He has encouraged white South Africans to seek refugee status in the USA, prioritizing their cases even as the total number of refugees admitted has been decreased. Then comes his allegations of Muslim Boko Haram militants targeting and slaughtering Christians. The Nigerian government has reacted very adversely to this, denying it strongly. Mr Trump’s absence may not be entirely Africa-related. He has also shown so far that he does not like multilateral institutions like the UN and NATO. He clearly perceives the G20 as another such institution, in which US leadership, while not denied, is not necessarily a given.
This may not always be a productive approach, especially in economic matters. While the USA was away, the rest managed to say that supplies of rare-earth minerals would remain secure, and to call for greater sustainability. The Summit’s members showed themselves as believing in climate change, something Mr Trump denies, and agreeing that climate finance needed to be increased substantially. Since none of the countries fall within his electorate, he may find that next year’s summit will not be as easy to preside over as it should be. The first issue may well be accepting the presidency from Mr Ramaphosa.
