<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, will participate this week in the 20th G20 Summit of Heads of State and Government, to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on November 22 and 23, which will not include any representative from the United States.</strong></h4> The leaders or representatives of the G20 member countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States), plus the African Union and the European Union, will participate in the G20 Summit, organized by the South African Presidency. Despite not being a member of the G20, Spain has participated since 2010 as a permanent guest (it is the only country with this status). US President Donald Trump has already announced that neither he nor any representative of his government will attend the G20 Summit in protest, according to him, against the “human rights abuses” of the white Afrikaner population. Behind this argument, everything points to the US boycott being retaliation for South Africa's decision to refer Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes against civilians in Gaza. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa urged the United States last Wednesday to reconsider its “regrettable” decision, and a government spokesperson described Trump's accusations against South Africa as “deceptive, unfounded, and damaging to international dialogue.” It is worth noting that the first G20 summit was held in Washington in November 2008, at the initiative of the United States, amidst the global financial crisis. So far, the following have confirmed their attendance: President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; President of the European Council, António Costa; President of Angola and of the African Union, João Lourenço; President of France, Emmanuel Macron; Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz; Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney; Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese; President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni; Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi; Prime Minister of China, Li Qiang; Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi; Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman; President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer; and President of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, among others. Argentine President Javier Milei will not attend in solidarity with Trump (his foreign minister, Pablo Quirno, will attend in his place), and Russia will once again be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as has been the case since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Among the guests, in addition to Pedro Sánchez, are Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the presidents of Nigeria, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates, and the prime ministers of Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, and Vietnam. The South Africa Summit will culminate in the adoption of a Leaders' Declaration, reflecting their commitment to the priorities discussed throughout the year. South Africa, which holds the G20 presidency from December 2024 to November 2025, has chosen the motto “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability” for its presidency, with a focus on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
