Global fragmentation is fuelling unprecedented turmoil and disproportionately harming poorer nations, South Africa’s foreign minister warned Thursday, urging a united G20 response for peace.
Ronald Lamola made the remarks to dozens of diplomats from the G20 group of the world’s leading economies meeting to prepare for its summit in November under South Africa’s presidency.
“State rivalries are fuelling fragmentation, with economic decoupling, and proxy conflicts undermining global stability,” the foreign minister said, referring to multiple major conflicts and humanitarian crises under way.
This was “exacerbating fragility in vulnerable regions while also weakening multilateral institutions that underpin the rules-based international order,” he said.
South Africa is the first African nation to hold the rotating year-long presidency of the group made up of 19 countries plus the European Union and the African Union that together represent around two-thirds of the world’s population and 80 percent of its GDP.
Pretoria wants to use its presidency to champion Global South priorities, including boosting climate resilience and tackling poor countries’ debt, before handing the baton to the United States next year.
Speaking to AFP, Lamola said he was hopeful that the talks at the Sun City resort 185 kilometres (115 miles) northwest of Johannesburg “will persuade and help to encourage the message of peace, good friendly neighbours and the language of de-escalation.”
Resolutions taken by the bloc are non-binding in nature and the diverse grouping has often failed to reach a consensus.
However, many members hold seats on the UN Security Council or are involved in conflict resolution efforts, making the G20 “an important platform” and “very persuasive”, Lamola told reporters.
Lamola said he was not concerned that the United States — the bloc’s richest member — did not send a representative to Sun City.
“We have received their letter of apology, in which they stated their reasons,” he said. “We believe that the G20 can proceed with or without the US, but they are important in terms of participation.”
Relations between South Africa and the United States plummeted this year over a range of international and domestic policies and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Cape Town in February.
Keen to salvage his summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa tried at talks with Donald Trump in May to have the US leader commit to attend the Johannesburg meeting.
The Russian representative at the Sun City, Svetlana Lukash, was non-committal about the attendance of President Vladimir Putin, saying only he will take part “in some way”.
Putin missed the previous G20 summits in India and Brazil, avoiding possible political opprobrium and any risk of criminal detention under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant.
Lukash said G20 members remained divided over Russia’s war in Ukraine but were less fixated on the conflict than they were when it started in 2022.
The war has split the G20, with Western countries condemning the invasion and pouring military and financial aid into Ukraine, while Russia has courted support from emerging powers such as Brazil, China and India.
“Most of the world closed their eyes on numerous conflicts around the world due to dominance of Western views,” she said. But more countries now recognised the “double standards”, Lukash said.
