Africa-Press – South-Africa. Donald Trump’s efforts to thwart the G20 Summit have fallen flat so far
At 11.52am on Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi strolled onto the red carpet at the Nasrec Expo Centre, fresh off a plane and a public tiff with China over Taiwan.
She was fashionably late, by over an hour, having missed the opening of the G20 Leaders’ Summit led by chairperson President Cyril Ramaphosa, and the adoption of the declaration by leaders of the world’s most powerful nations who made the long trip to South Africa.
Earlier that morning, Ramaphosa was grinning from ear to ear, standing at the end of the red carpet to welcome heads of state and other dignitaries from the 40 or so nations to the first G20 Summit held on African soil. He had that deeply satisfied look of a schoolboy welcoming classmates and friends to his birthday party sleepover.
And so he should. US President Donald Trump, ever the schoolyard bully, had for weeks tried to crash the party. He had made it repeatedly and abundantly clear that he wasn’t going to attend the event.
At some point it seemed he would allow his deputy JD Vance to represent him as the next chair of the G20, but changed his mind at the last minute to forbid the presence of any senior US official at the shindig.
Trump has had issues with South Africa since returning to office. He dislikes our redress laws, falsely believes white Afrikaners are under constant violent attacks, and despises our just stance against Israel’s relentless onslaught on Palestinians. He generally has a problem with South Africa’s progressive disposition on issues, including climate justice.
But try as he may, he just couldn’t spoil Cyril’s party.
Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, and French President Emmanuel Macron — the biggest men in Europe — rallied behind South Africa to make the summit a success.Chinese President Xi Jinping couldn’t make it but sent his second in charge, Premier Li Qiang, displaying the seriousness with which he regards South Africa and the summit.
German Chancellor Frederich Merz, Italy’s Georgia Meloni, Brazil’s Lula Da Silva and other leaders with political and diplomatic clout added weight to the event. Takaichi might have strolled in late, but that she made the long journey to Joburg instead of attending remotely speaks volumes.
Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a regional strongman, brought muscle to the line-up. Ramaphosa’s friends on the continent, including Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu and Angola’s João Lourenço, also came in numbers to support their buddy.
Realising other G20 leaders weren’t falling for his theatrics, Trump tried a desperate last-minute move of sneaking in a junior official to accept the declaration. He was still shown the middle finger.That the declaration was adopted on the first day of the summit must have really offended the bully.
Ramaphosa, correctly so, has his share of critics in the country for what many perceive as too many failures of leadership. He tends to be indecisive at times when bold leadership is required. His promised economic reforms are taking way too long to implement. The police were captured by criminal elements from right under his nose, enabled by a minister he appointed. There’s a general sense of despair about where the country is headed under his leadership.
He was overdue a win of some sorts. This one, against the world’s biggest bully while the whole world watches, must be especially sweet.
source:timeslive
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
