Trump, Putin Skipping the G-20 in South Africa

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00:00Jen, the meeting about to get underway, as Carol mentioned, we have the Bloomberg Next Africa

00:05newsletter. And we noted in that newsletter that the summit this year risks being a dud.

00:11What's going on? Why is that? Yeah, Tim, I think it depends on who you're speaking to, really,

00:18right? Because throughout this whole G20 presidency that South Africa has had,

00:23there's been quite a bit of overshadowing, which has primarily come from the U.S. president.

00:29And the delegation really adamantly and vehemently denying and disputing a lot of what they say is

00:38their misalignment on some of the priorities of the South African president. This year's theme for

00:44the G20 summit is solidarity, equality and sustainability. And much of what we've heard

00:50from the U.S. president, Donald Trump, is that the U.S. does not align with this proposed theme.

00:57And so the concern here really has been what, if at all, involvement the U.S. will have in this

01:04year's summit for most of the past few months. We've understood that President Trump was not

01:08going to be in attendance. We thought potentially Vice President J.D. Vance would make an appearance.

01:13And then, of course, we know over the past few weeks, President Trump said no U.S. officials

01:19would be allowed to attend this summit because of, you know, some of the allegations that he has

01:25for what he believes are happening in South Africa. And so the concern here really is that

01:30a lot of this back and forth, seemingly between two bilateral partners, South Africa and the United

01:37States, risks overshadowing any sort of progress that we get from this summit. I should just update,

01:43though, that, of course, we did get an 11th hour, seemingly an about face over the past few

01:49hours that seemed like potentially we would get a U.S. official on the ground. Caroline Levitt from

01:54the White House said that wasn't, in fact, going to happen. But as you mentioned, of course,

01:59the U.S. is going to host the G20 in 2026. So many people are wondering what, if at any

02:06declaration and consensus, will we get over the next few days? It seems like potentially the leaders

02:12that are here, and we should mention there are quite a few who are still in attendance at the

02:16summit over the next few days, may be able to find alignment. The really what will be the big

02:23question, though, is whether or not the U.S. will continue to prioritize some of the recommendations

02:27that we see in the declaration if we do get that at the end of this weekend.

02:32You know, Jen, as you pointed out, it's President Trump largely right in terms of criticism about South

02:37Africa and what he perceives as things happening there. Having said that, I'm looking at like our roundup

02:45and, you know, our weekly look at the region, you know, China continues to invest in, you know,

02:53places across the continent. NVIDIA-backed CASAVA technologies, raising as much as $700 million to

03:01build an upgraded network of data centers across Africa with AI tips. I mean, companies and other

03:06partners are there and continue to increase their presence. But you know this area. Talk to us about

03:13kind of what we need to know and who's there and what's going to go on at this summit.

03:18Right. And Carol, I think that's an important point that you mentioned. Over the past few days,

03:21we had the B20, which is, of course, the corporate sector convening before the public sector convenes.

03:27And what they were telling us across the past few days that we've been on the ground is that they are

03:32all in alignment on many of the recommendations that was put forward as South Africa was the first

03:39African country to host the G20. Many of the priorities being getting a hold on debt, of course,

03:47high debt for a number of global South and emerging market economies, and also trying to find ways in

03:53which the private sector can actually support development amongst emerging markets. And so

03:58the corporate environment and the corporate private sector seems to be in alignment.

04:02The question will really be, what will the public sector be able to agree upon? Some of the sticking

04:09points amongst a number of these leaders, based on Bloomberg reporting, is this element of climate

04:15finance and what that actually looks like, and what sort of participation will we see from some of the

04:21other countries. But we have heard, you know, India's Narendra Modi is on the ground here. Emmanuel Macron is

04:28also here. Germany and Brazil's leaders have voiced their own support for a number of the initiatives

04:33that President Ramaphosa has put forward. And so, you know, it was very interesting to hear from the

04:39private sector who says it doesn't really matter what comes out of the G20. They are, in fact, in

04:44alignment and they will help move forward some of these priorities. What, though, will the public sector

04:50be able to uptake and push forward will be the question. And the one thing I would add is that

04:56yesterday I was in the room with President Ramaphosa when he made the suggestion that potentially the U.S.

05:01was going to participate. And he said throughout all this time, the U.S. has had a seat. They are

05:07always welcome to be a part of these negotiations. But the U.S. has vehemently threatened any sort of

05:14declaration at the end of this weekend summit. And so perhaps we don't see an official declaration.

05:19So maybe, in fact, the private sector is what drives these recommendations and this collective

05:27multilateralism, as it were, forward.

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