Following the US boycott and handover dispute, Cyril Ramaphosa ends the G20 summit.

After rejecting a US suggestion to give over to a relatively minor embassy official for the next summit in Florida in a year, South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, closed the G20 conference in Johannesburg by slamming a gavel.

The US boycotted the two-day event, which South Africa portrayed as a victory for multilateralism. The US has consistently accused South Africa of discriminating against white-minority Afrikaners, an accusation that has been thoroughly refuted.

Ramaphosa said in his closing speech: “We’ve met in the face of significant challenges and demonstrated our ability to come together, even in times of great difficulty, to pursue a better world.”

Wrapping up his address, he said: “This gavel of this G20 summit formally closes this summit and now moves on to the next president of the G20, which is the United States, where we shall see each other again next year.” It was Ramaphosa’s only mention of the country absent from the gathering of the world’s largest economies.

In a statement released on Saturday, the G20 emphasized the importance of addressing climate change and achieving “gender equality.” On the first day of his second term in office, Donald Trump’s government withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement and revoked numerous laws intended to combat racism, misogyny, and homophobia.

Ramaphosa was charged by White House spokesman Anna Kelly with “refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G20 presidency.” “This, coupled with South Africa’s push to issue a G20 leaders’ declaration, despite consistent and robust US objections, underscores the fact that they have weaponised their G20 presidency to undermine the G20’s founding principles,” she said.

South Africa had offered to arrange for an equivalent “junior” diplomat to formally hand the G20 presidency to the US at the foreign ministry. Officials had stated it would breach protocol for Ramaphosa to give it to the US acting ambassador.

South Africa’s foreign minister, Ronald Lamola, told reporters: “From us, the ball has moved. We are done. It’s up to them. If they want to come, we are available.”

The 2026 summit is scheduled to take place at the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort, which is owned by the Trump Organization.

Argentina, whose president, Javier Milei, skipped the summit, also refused to endorse the declaration. Its foreign minister, Pablo Quirno, said: “Specifically it addresses the longstanding Middle East conflict in a manner that fails to capture its full complexity.”

The G20 communique stated: “We will work for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ukraine, as well as ending other conflicts and wars around the globe.”