G20 Summit 2025

25.11.2025

G20 Summit 2025

Context
The 2025 G20 Summit was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, the first-ever G20 summit hosted on African soil. Despite a boycott by the United States, the summit ended with the adoption of a comprehensive Leaders’ Declaration focused on multilateralism, sustainable development, and global equity.

About the G20

• The Group of Twenty (G20) is the leading forum for international economic cooperation, representing 85% of global GDP, 75% of world trade, and two-thirds of the world’s population.
• It comprises 19 major economies plus the European Union and the African Union.
• The G20 was established in 1999 after the Asian Financial Crisis and upgraded to a Leaders’ Summit level in 2008–09, broadening its agenda to issues like trade, health, climate change, and sustainable development.

Summit Theme and Priorities

• South Africa’s presidency theme was “ सद्भाव, समानता, स्थिरता” (“Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability”).
• Priorities included disaster resilience, debt sustainability for low-income countries, energy transition finance, critical minerals development, inclusive economic growth, food security, and harnessing AI for sustainable development.

Key Outcomes

• The Leaders’ Declaration emphasized multilateral cooperation, climate action, debt relief, and sustainable development, adopted despite the U.S. boycott.
• Strong commitments were made toward climate resilience, renewable energy expansion, and support for vulnerable countries facing climate-induced disasters.
• The declaration focused on reforming global financial institutions to better include Global South voices and reduce inequalities.
• It emphasized inclusive industrialization, particularly in critical minerals, value addition in Africa, and global peace and stability.
• Digital transformation, AI innovation, and combating the drug-terror nexus were highlighted.
• India launched the trilateral ACITI partnership (Australia, Canada, India) to cooperate on critical technologies, AI, supply chains, and clean energy.

Challenges

• The U.S. boycott related to geopolitical tensions, particularly disagreements over the climate agenda and South Africa’s hosting protocols.
• Divergence on fossil fuel phase-out commitments and ongoing Ukraine war divisions strained consensus.
• Calls were made for reform of the global financial architecture to address inequities in debt, lending, and representation.

Way Forward

• Strengthening multilateral consensus-building and insulating the G20 from great-power politics is crucial.
• Operationalizing climate finance, debt relief, and adapting to climate change impacts remains priorities, especially for the Global South.
• Institutionalizing Africa’s voice via permanent African Union membership in the G20 is essential for inclusivity.
• Reforming global financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank to ensure fair financing and transparency is a key demand.

Conclusion
The Johannesburg G20 Summit demonstrated that committed multilateral action is possible despite geopolitical discord. Emphasizing climate justice, equitable growth, and development priorities of poorer nations, the summit’s success hinges on strengthening cooperation, dialogue, and institutional reforms to secure the G20’s role as the premier global economic governance platform.​​