G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting: Republic of South Africa's G20 priorities and G20@20 review

Your excellency, Minister  Lamola,

Excellencies,

Twenty years ago, the G20 was elevated to the Leaders' level during a global financial crisis that threatened to unravel decades of economic progress. That moment – when the leaders of both advanced and emerging economies came together – marked the start of a new era of multilateralism, an era in which we are now fully immersed.

Throughout the years, a crisis-prone world has tested this group. Five years ago, the G20 sprung up during the COVID pandemic. The actions it took then – the issuance of Special Drawing Rights, the initiation of the Common Framework for Debt Treatment, the start of the MDB reform agenda – are some of the most ambitious contributions to global economic policymaking in recent years.

This work reveals an enduring truth about the G20. There is great power in this room.

We don’t have to look somewhere else. If there is the political will this group can take decisions that go a long way in supporting a more inclusive and sustainable world, precisely following the theme of this year’s G20 by South Africa: “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability”

So, the G20's work must not only continue but accelerate. Most of the developing world has not yet recovered, growth is low and trade and investment are weak. As South Africa has rightly enphasized, the cost of capital has become a development tax in Africa and in many low-income and even middle-income countries; and as debt burdens continue to grow, we see more countries forced to choose between servicing their debt and serving their people. Next month, we will have an UNCTAD Debt Conference in Geneva, and in July we have the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville. With the G20’s support, these are opportunities to translate crisis-born innovations into permanent solutions.

And that, precisely, is what we need more of. From recycling special drawing rights (SDRs) through multilateral development banks (MDBs), to the reform of the common framework for debt treatment, to the inclusion of the climate resilient clauses and the debt swaps for climate, to the trade system reform, to the acceleration of the MDBs roadmap so MDBs can bear more risk and crow-in more private investment – we need to push the agendas that were put forward in the times of crisis, with the same impetus that we saw then.

Because the challenges ahead, rightly prioritized by South Africa – on disaster risk reduction, on debt, on food insecurity, on climate finance, on critical minerals, on AI – won’t politely wait for our attention.

What happens in this room, your excellencies, is not predetermined by history or structure, but by choices we make today. South Africa's presidency reminds us that the power to transform our challenges into opportunities lies not in some abstract forum, but in this room, with these people, at this moment.

Thank you.