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US boycotts summit over alleged persecution of white South

Africans

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Declaration agreed without US input

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South African president achieved consensus for declaration

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Threat of climate change mentioned despite US opposition

(Adds White House statement, see paragraphs 1,2, 4,5)

By Tim Cocks, Julia Payne, Nqobile Dludla and Andrea Shalal

JOHANNESBURG/WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Group of 20

leaders adopted a declaration addressing the climate crisis and

other global challenges on Saturday over U.S. objections,

prompting the White House to accuse South Africa of weaponizing

its leadership of the group this year.

The declaration, which was drafted without input from

the United States, "can't be renegotiated," South African

President Cyril Ramaphosa's spokesperson told reporters,

reflecting strains between Pretoria and U.S. President Donald

Trump's administration, which boycotted the event.

"We had the entire year of working towards this adoption

and the past week has been quite intense," spokesperson Vincent

Magwenya said.

Hours later, the White House said Ramaphosa was "refusing to

facilitate a smooth transition of the G20 presidency" after

initially saying he would pass the gavel to 'an empty chair.'"

"This, coupled with South Africa's push to issue a G20

Leaders Declaration, despite consistent and robust U.S.

objections, underscores the fact that they have weaponized their

G20 presidency to undermine the G20's founding principles," said

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. Trump looks forward to

"restoring legitimacy" to the group next year, when the U.S.

holds the rotating presidency.

Ramaphosa, host of this weekend's gathering of Group of

20 leaders in Johannesburg, had earlier said there was

"overwhelming consensus" for a summit declaration.

But at the last minute Argentina, whose far-right President

Javier Milei is a close ally of Trump, quit the negotiations

right before the envoys were about to adopt the draft text,

South African officials said.

"Argentina, although it cannot endorse the declaration ...

remains fully committed to the spirit of cooperation that has

defined the G20 since its conception," its foreign minister

Pablo Quirno said at the summit. Ramaphosa noted this, but went

ahead with it anyway.

In explanation, Quirno said Argentina was concerned about

how the document referred to geopolitical issues.

"Specifically it addresses the longstanding Middle East

conflict in a manner that fails to capture its full complexity,"

he said. The document mentions the conflict once, saying members

agree to work for a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace in

... the Occupied Palestinian Territory."

DECLARATION MENTIONS CLIMATE CHANGE

Envoys from the G20 - which brings together the world's

major economies - drew up a draft leaders' declaration on Friday

without U.S. involvement, four sources familiar with the matter

said.

"It is a longstanding G20 tradition to issue only consensus

deliverables, and it is shameful that the South African

government is now trying to depart from this standard practice,"

a senior Trump administration official said on Friday.

The declaration used the kind of language long disliked by

the U.S. administration: stressing the seriousness of climate

change and the need to better adapt to it, praising ambitious

targets to boost renewable energy and noting the punishing

levels of debt service suffered by poor countries.

The mention of climate change was a snub to Trump, who

doubts the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by

human activities. U.S. officials had indicated they would oppose

any reference to it in the declaration.

In opening remarks to the summit, Ramaphosa said: "We should

not allow anything to diminish the value, the stature and the

impact of the first African G20 presidency."

His bold tone was a striking contrast to his subdued decorum

during his visit to the White House in May, in which he endured

Trump repeating a false claim that there was a genocide of white

farmers in South Africa, brushing aside Ramaphosa's efforts to

correct his facts.

Trump said U.S. officials would not attend the summit

because of allegations, widely discredited, that the host

country's Black majority government persecutes its white

minority.

TRUMP REJECTS SOUTH AFRICA'S G20 AGENDA

The summit came at a time of heightened tensions between

world powers over Russia's war in Ukraine and fraught climate

negotiations at the COP30 in Brazil.

"While the G20 diversity sometimes presents challenges, it

also underscores the importance of finding common ground," Japan

Cabinet Public Affairs Secretary Maki Kobayashi told Reuters.

Commenting on Argentina's absence from the final envoy

meeting to agree on the text, Magwenya said: "Argentina (had)

been participating quite meaningfully ... in all the

deliberations," then never showed up to endorse the declaration

on Friday. He added: "We have what we call sufficient

consensus."

The U.S. president had also rejected the host nation's

agenda of promoting solidarity and helping developing nations

adapt to weather disasters, transition to clean energy and cut

their excessive debt costs.

"This G20 is not about the U.S.," South African Foreign

Minister Ronald Lamola told public broadcaster SABC. "We are all

equal members of the G20. What it means is that we need to take

a decision. Those of us who are here have decided this is where

the world must go."

But in a sign of the many geopolitical fissures underlying

the agreed text, EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen warned in

a speech about "the weaponization of dependencies" which she

said "only creates losers".

This was an apparent veiled reference to China's export

curbs on rare earths vital for the world's energy transition, as

well as defence and digital technology.

The South African presidency on Saturday reiterated its

rejection of a U.S. offer to send the U.S. charge d'affaires for

the G20 handover.

"The president will not hand over to a junior embassy

official the presidency of the G20. It's a breach of protocol

that is not going to be accommodated," Magwenya said.

Lamola later said that South Africa would assign a diplomat

of the same rank as a charge d'affaires to hand over the G20

presidency at the foreign affairs department.