Johannesburg, May 13 (AP) South Africa's Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said there has been great support for his country's priorities during its presidency of the G20 bloc.

“As the first African nation to lead this bloc, we remain steadfast in our commitment to advancing a world grounded in solidarity, equality, and sustainability, albeit in a volatile and polarised geopolitical climate,” Ramola said at a media briefing on Monday.

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South Africa is halfway through its rotating presidency of the G20.

Ramola, the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, highlighted some of the activities carried out in the first half of South Africa's presidency and shared plans for the second half of the year.

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"From the recent meetings, it is important to note that while there are divergences on some issues, as to be expected in multilateral engagements, there is still overwhelming support for South Africa's priorities by G20 members,” he said.

“Furthermore, when our G20 Sherpa briefed the United Nations General Assembly in New York on our G20 priorities in March 2025, the meeting also expressed strong support for our G20 presidency agenda,” Lamola said.

He said that since officially assuming the G20 presidency on 1 December 2024, South Africa has convened 51 meetings across all the Sherpa Track and Finance Track Working Groups, including the three task forces established by its presidency to focus on inclusive economic growth, industrialisation, employment, and reduced inequality; food security; reduced inequality and artificial intelligence, data governance and innovation for sustainable development.

“These meetings discussed some of the most important and urgent challenges facing the global community, reflecting our strong determination to seek sustainable and innovative solutions through dialogue, collaboration and cooperation,” he said.

"Throughout the working groups, we are also championing broader and cross-cutting issues such as reform of the multilateral trading system and the international financial architecture, including strengthening of multilateral development banks,” he said.

Other areas of attention that Lamola highlighted are addressing climate change, promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, advocating for gender equality, pursuing enhanced international tax cooperation and addressing illicit financial flows.

“South Africa's G20 presidency stands firm in the belief that multilateral cooperation is not optional: it is imperative. Unilateral actions that undermine the rules-based order risk reversing decades of progress,” Lamola said as he stressed the need to reform the United Nations to make it fit for purpose and relevant to the current international reality, including the Security Council.

The minister said that at the 2nd G20 Sherpa meeting held in April 2025, many delegations, including South Africa, expressed serious concerns about the resurgence of protectionism and unilateral measures that undermine the multilateral trading system and reaffirmed the need for collective action to address issues related to this.

Among these were honouring and strengthening G20 WTO commitments, including the principle of special and differential treatment, while advancing necessary reforms; resolving trade disputes through constructive dialogue and established mechanisms; and ensuring that trade policies actively support sustainable development objectives, particularly Africa's industrialisation and transition to value-added production.

The minister confirmed that at the forthcoming Sherpa meeting to be held in the last week of June 2025 in Sun City, in the North-West province, "engagement groups" will have the opportunity to make their formal submissions to the G20 on issues they propose for inclusion in the G20 Leaders' Declaration to be negotiated and adopted by the leaders in November 2025.

“In the current geopolitical and geo-economic global headwinds, there are high expectations on South Africa to deliver positive outcomes, advance innovative solutions to global challenges, and re-build the trust of the international community in the G20,” Lamola said.

The minister said that logistical preparations for the hosting of the Leaders' Summit in Johannesburg in November 2025 is a major project requiring significant planning, coordination and project management, which is being undertaken by the government in partnership with the private sector.

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