A UK reporter in Johannesburg delivered a blistering critique of the United States after President Donald Trump boycotted the 2025 G20 summit, warning that Washington has “kissed goodbye” to its superpower status. Simon Marks argued the US “marginalised itself” by refusing to attend the first G20 held on African soil, accusing Trump of acting on “complete disinformation.” South Africa dismissed America’s last-minute attempt to send an envoy and marked Washington as formally absent, with President Cyril Ramaphosa saying it was “their loss.” Leaders carried on without the US, issuing an early joint statement and concluding the summit under the theme of solidarity, equality and sustainability. #US #g20 #trump #apt
00:00This is probably the biggest advert for South Africa and Africa that I've ever seen in my 40
00:27years reporting. The positivity in terms of the messaging that has come out of this conference
00:33is something that you cannot buy. The positive story of Africa's economic upturn, whether you're
00:40looking at the 13 fastest growing countries in the world, being of African origin, is a story that
00:48you cannot tell to a larger platform. So for me, I think what this conference has done is to firmly
00:57place Africa on the map. And I think not only that, place Africa on the map with a positive message
01:05that I think has not resonated as much as this has done.
01:14South Africa has tried to pull in all African countries during the discussions and preparation
01:20of the G20. There have been multiple task forces on education, on AI, on development and on
01:28financing. Now, the good thing is that African continent has got a demographic bulge, which
01:37is the African youth dividend. But that African youth dividend, if it's not nurtured, we're
01:44going to see an African youth cast. So G20 will be remembered for having set instruments in place
01:52that will avoid and prevent or rather mitigate the spiral evil of hunger, poverty, unemployment. It
02:02will be remembered for that. It is inclusive. But within the world that we're in now, the
02:09embrace gold use and wars we see in the war, G20 becomes also a genesis of a new or even old
02:19multilateralism. When powers that be try to go unilateral, G20 showed that there is a possibility
02:27of establishing a new foundation. Now, here's the thing with this G20 and the importance that is
02:33taking place on the African soil. None of the treaties that we have from Brighton Wood Institutes,
02:40United Nations, all the institutions that we know and the frameworks, they were all initiated in the
02:47global north. This is the first ever occasion where the global south is no longer at the periphery.
02:55Specifically, the African continent is not at the periphery, but is at the center of everything.
03:01As you know, the war in Sudan has been for two or three years at the moment. South Africa for the
03:11first time in the G20 history, I mean for the only three years, they bring the Sudanese name for the
03:18first time along with the Ukraine and along with Gaza. I think that's symbolic because South Africa is
03:24not just talking about the global south, about African issue. It brings those issues to the table.
03:29And this is an important international platform that can, when you acknowledge the issue that you can
03:37talk about it and then you can address it and you can find the solution. And that was for me,
03:41it was very crucial. It was very significant.
03:43I think there's a potential of business. There's a business potential in Africa. That's the people are just unfamiliar on how to reach that potential. I think South Africa on this G20 are trying to say like, if we do it, if we could do it, you also can do it and we can help you. We can be like, we can be a gate for that potential.
04:13And we can help you to access that. And we can show you how to do it as well. Africa, in Africa here, like this serious issues that before no one could talk about it. I think South Africa many to talk about. One of this issue, the mineral resources that it's been before, like to open your mouth and speak about like you, we should, you should like add value on those minerals.
04:36Here in Africa, that was not possible. But this time, I think South Africa was speaking about normally, like casually, now it's time for us to address this. And I think this is also a new kind of collaboration between Africa and like the global North or the other Western countries as well.
04:53We just need to change that, the old dynamic and traditional way of doing business, but we still have a potential of doing new, to reach a new deal, a new kind of win-win or economic growth together.
05:05I think without question, this G20 will be remembered as the G20 from which the United States absented itself and then marginalized itself by having done that.
05:23So to see images, as we've seen here over the last two days, of the rest of the world gathering and talking about really, really important stuff, and for the United States to have chosen for no good reason whatsoever, indeed, based on complete disinformation about what's taking place in this country, not to have had a seat at the table, has just hastened a multipolar era in which the United States can kiss goodbye to any suggestion.
05:52That it is the last remaining superpower. It isn't. It abnegated its responsibility by not being here. And it's going to pay the price for that for a long time to come, long after Donald Trump has left the White House.
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