G20 Summit 2025

The 2025 G20 Johannesburg summit is the upcoming twentieth meeting of the Group of Twenty (G20), a meeting of heads of state and government planned from 22 to 23 November 2025. It will be the first G20 summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa and on the African continent.

South Africa assumed the G20 presidency from 1 December 2024 to November 2025, approximately five years ahead of the United Nations (UN) Agenda 2030 deadline.

There are high expectations that South Africa will lead a progressive, people-centred, development-oriented and solution-oriented presidency, in a fractured global geopolitical context, until it hands over the presidency to the United States on 1 December 2025.

South Africa’s participation in the G20 is guided by its four strategic foreign policy pillars (national interests, the African Agenda, South-South Cooperation and Multilateralism).

Summit topic

For the G20 to make a meaningful contribution in addressing the polycrisis confronting the world, South Africa has adopted the theme “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability”.

This theme reflects South Africa’s intention to build on the efforts and successes of the last three G20 Presidencies of the Global South and to advance the development agenda.

Through solidarity, South Africa seeks to achieve a people-centred, development-oriented and inclusive future. In an interconnected world, the challenges facing one nation affect all nations. By promoting equality, the country seeks to ensure fair treatment, opportunities and progress for all people and nations, regardless of their economic status, gender, race, geographic location or other characteristics. Sustainability is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own.

Agenda priorities

South Africa will continue to use the G20 as a premier forum for economic and financial cooperation, bringing together developed and developing countries, and emerging markets to find solutions to global challenges. During the 2024 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that “we will put Africa’s development at the top of the agenda when we host the G20 in 2025.”

South Africa will use its G20 Presidency to advocate and mobilise support for developing economies in Africa and the Global South, building on the efforts and successes of the Indonesian, Indian and Brazilian Presidencies to champion the development agenda. South Africa will also be using its presidency to promote global debt reform.

The South African G20 Presidency will drive the following high-level outcomes and priorities, which will be expressed in the work of two “tracks”, the Sherpa and Finance tracks:

High-level priorities

Priority 1 – Inclusive economic growth, industrialisation, employment and reducing inequality
Priority 2 – Food security
Priority 3 – Artificial intelligence and innovation for sustainable development

Preparations

The South African government has budgeted R691 million (38.7 million USD) in preparation for the G20 events.

Participating leaders

Argentina
Pablo Quirno, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship
Australia
Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister
Brazil
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President
Canada
Mark Carney, Prime Minister
China
Li Qiang, Premier
France
Emmanuel Macron, President
Germany
Friedrich Merz, Chancellor
India
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
Indonesia
Prabowo Subianto, President
Italy
Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister
Japan
Sanae Takaichi, Prime Minister
Mexico
Juan Ramón de la Fuente, Secretary of Foreign Affairs
Russia
Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister^[b]
Saudi Arabia
Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister
South Africa
Cyril Ramaphosa, President (Host)
South Korea
Lee Jae Myung, President
Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President
United Kingdom
Keir Starmer, Prime Minister
European Union
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
European Union
Antonio Costa, President of the European Council
African Union
Angola
João Lourenço, Chairperson and President

Notable non-participation

United States president Donald Trump stated the country would not send any representation to the summit, citing claims of Afrikaner persecution in South Africa and calling the hosting of the summit there “a total disgrace”. Argentina’s president Javier Milei withdrew from the summit to support Trump’s boycott, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno was designed as his substitute.