The recently-held G20 Summit in Johannesburg was an exceptional event for various reasons. In a rare first, an African nation hosted the summit. Secondly, the US did not attend the summit because of its diplomatic rift with the host country. And most importantly, world leaders from the Group of 20 rich and developing economies broke the tradition to adopt a declaration at the beginning of the summit (instead of the end) in South Africa on November 22, 2025.

The G20 declaration includes a strong political message by condemning terrorism, calling for a just and lasting peace in specific global conflicts, and advocating for stronger multilateralism and adherence to the UN Charter. The declaration also focusses on concrete issues, such as accelerating climate action, strengthening development goals, providing debt relief, and promoting women’s empowerment and digital public infrastructure. The G20 leaders have explicitly acknowledged the need to rapidly and substantially scale up investment and climate finance from “billions to trillions” globally from all sources, and the acknowledgment is a key point in the declaration.

They have reaffirmed their commitment to an “open, fair and inclusive multilateral trading system“, calling for the reform of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to improve its functions. The call for reform emphasises the need for a well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all members. The G20 leaders have stated that the global financial system needs reform to help low-income countries with their debt burdens, which limit their ability to invest in essential services. The group supports strengthening the Common Framework for Debt Treatments, enhancing debt transparency and improving the IMF-World Bank (WB) Debt Sustainability Framework. They have further called for a “just, comprehensive and lasting peace” in Ukraine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the joint declaration.

Meanwhile, India has made an attempt to establish itself as the voice of the Global South at the G20 Summit. The G20 leaders have pledged in their summit declaration to work for a “just, comprehensive and lasting” peace, condemning terrorism in “all its forms and manifestations“, in line with India’s renewed emphasis on international efforts to combat the global menace since the April 22, 2025 Pahalgam terror attack. The declaration has also reinforced the work of the Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group launched under India’s presidency, and explicitly recognised the role of India and France in the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI).

No one should forget that various terrorist organisations use the smuggling of synthetic drugs, such as fentanyl, as a major source of funding and this particular issue has been explicitly raised at the G20 level, with leaders recognising it as a serious challenge to global security, public health and social stability. The Indian Prime Minister’s proposals for a global healthcare response team, key mineral transportation and open satellite data sharing are indicative of strengthening solidarity within the Global South, as they aim to foster collaborative solutions to shared challenges, like health crises and resource management. On the sidelines of the G20 Summit held on November 21-22, 2025, India, Australia and Canada announced a new trilateral framework – the Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation (ACITI) Partnership – to enhance cooperation in critical and emerging technologies.

Earlier, the US announced that it would not attend the Johannesburg Summit in protest against Human Rights abuses in South Africa. Since Donald John Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he has frequently made false claims of a White Genocide against Afrikaners, stressing that Afrikaners, the descendants of the first European settlers of South Africa, “are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated“. It may be noted that President Trump did not attend the COP30 Summit, held in Belém, Brazil on November 10-21, 2025, as the event was inconsistent with the current US policy to boost fossil fuels. Hence, there is uncertainty about the future of the 2026 G20 Summit in Miami.

No one knows whether the well-known African philosophy of Ubuntu (often translated as ‘I am because we are‘), mentioned in the Johannesburg Declaration, shall remain relevant in the future.

Meanwhile,

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das