White House accuses South Africa of bocking smooth G20 presidency handover

The White House has accused South Africa of declining to ensure a smooth handover of the G20 presidency to the United States, Azernews reports via TRT World. The claim comes after South Africa’s Foreign Ministry said it would transfer the presidency to Washington “at an appropriate level”, shortly after the G20 adopted a climate-crisis declaration opposed by the US.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said on Saturday that President Cyril Ramaphosa had pushed for a G20 leaders’ statement addressing the climate emergency and other global issues “despite consistent and robust US objections.”

She added that President Donald Trump was looking forward to “restoring legitimacy to the G20 in the US’ 2026 host year.”

Earlier, South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told reporters at the summit that the US had wanted the handover to be carried out through the chargé d’affaires at its embassy in Pretoria.

Lamola stressed that South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) sought to make a clear distinction between the formal handover process and the ongoing summit discussions attended by world leaders and their duly appointed representatives.