South Africa insists 'diplomatic tiff' with Trump won't derail tomorrow's G20 agreement

A LEADING SOUTH African official has said that the country’s diplomatic spat with the US will not “undermine” the final declaration for this year’s G20 summit.

The US is to receive the presidency of the summit in a handover ceremony tomorrow, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely that Donald Trump’s administration will have any representation at the gathering of major world leaders in Johannesburg.

South Africa’s host nation will also not accept the Trump administration sending a junior official in place of the president or one of his senior officials.

Vincent Magwenya, a spokesperson for South African president Cyril Ramophosa, said the G20 would move on with its work with or without the US.

“If it doesn’t happen as it’s meant to happen, then it doesn’t happen,” Magwenya told reporters at the Nasdec conference centre this afternoon.

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The declaration represents the aims agreed by the leading world economies who make up the G20.

South African officials at this year’s summit with knowledge of the negotiations from the South have told The Journal that the declaration has been watered down during this week’s negotiations.

It is therefore considered to be less ambitious, having been agreed in an effort to achieve a broad consensus among the G20′s member states and blocs.

Magwenya said it would be wrong for members to “abandon that responsibility just because of a bilateral diplomatic tiff with South Africa”.

He added that whatever the disagreements with the US, they “must not in any shape or form undermine or imperil the work of the G20″.

It’s the first year the summit has taken place on the African continent, and has seen South Africa attempt to pursue an agenda more favourable to the Global South.

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