Published: 12:46 AM, 24 November 2025
G20 members emphasize more on developing countries
The final document of the Group of 20 Summit in South Africa says the organization will work towards the settlement of armed conflicts and lighten the burden of the developing nations in the world.
The G20 comprises 19 countries including: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States and two regional bodies, namely the European Union and the African Union.
G20 initially focused largely on broad macroeconomic issues, but it has since expanded its agenda to inter-alia include trade, climate change, sustainable development, health, agriculture, energy, environment, climate change, and anti-corruption. G20 was founded in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis of 1997 – 1998.
The G20 members represent around 85% of the global Gross Domestic Product, over 75% of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.
The summit, the first G20 gathering on the African continent, convened on Saturday for the first of two days with an ambitious agenda to make progress on solving some of the longstanding problems that have afflicted the world’s poorest nations despite a boycott by the United States.
Leaders and top government officials from the richest and leading emerging economies came together at an exhibition centre near the famous Soweto township in South Africa, once home to iconic post-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, to try to find some consensus on the priorities set out by the host country.
The adopted summit declaration said the organization will work for a comprehensive and lasting peace in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the occupied Palestinian territory and Ukraine.
The declaration placed pointed emphasis on the seriousness of climate change, in a snub to US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly cast aspersions and doubts on the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by human activities.
It stressed that increasing large-scale disasters disproportionately affect people in vulnerable situations in ways that exacerbate poverty and inequality, adding that a high level of debt is one of the obstacles to inclusive growth in many developing economies.
“We are committed to strengthen the implementation of the G20 common framework for debt treatments in a predictable, timely, orderly, and coordinated manner,” the declaration said.
“Critical minerals should become a catalyst for value-addition and broad-based development, rather than just raw material exports,” it added.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his opening remarks that South Africa sought to preserve the integrity and stature of the G20 top economies, but is also committed to ensuring that the development priorities of the Global South and Africa find expression in the group’s agenda.
