Putin hails South Africa’s G20 chairmanship
Russia and China support South Africa’s G20 presidency and its efforts to strengthen gains for the Global South, President Vladimir Putin has said.
Putin made the remarks in an interview with China’s Xinhua news agency on Saturday, responding to a question on how Moscow and Beijing safeguard their development and security interests, unite the Global South, and promote a fairer world order, by coordinating across multilateral platforms.
Close cooperation between Moscow and Beijing has positively shaped the work of leading economic forums, including the G20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Putin noted.
“Within the G20, together with like-minded nations, and especially BRICS members, we have redirected the agenda towards issues of real importance to the global majority, strengthened the format by including the African Union, and deepened the synergies between the G20 and BRICS,” Putin stated.
South Africa assumed the rotating presidency of the G20 on December 1, 2024, becoming the first African nation to lead the forum and will host group’s upcoming summit in Johannesburg in November under the theme “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has pledged to use his country’s chairmanship to advance Africa and the Global South’s development priorities, including addressing the impacts of climate change. The government has since launched several initiatives, including a G20 task force to examine global wealth inequality and its impact on developing economies.
US President Donald Trump and senior officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have accused Pretoria of advancing an “anti-American” agenda and said they would boycott the summit.
Russia, however, has aligned itself with Pretoria’s priorities, calling South Africa’s chairmanship a milestone for the African continent and a constructive step for multilateralism. In February, ahead of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Johannesburg, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow, together with BRICS partners and other nations of the Global South and East, had managed to block Western attempts to “Ukrainize” the agenda of South Africa’s presidency and to impose discriminatory decisions on economics, finance, trade, and climate.
