President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday concluded his visit to Argentina, where he led South Africa’s delegation to the G20 Summit.
The G20, which accounts for 80 percent of global gross domestic product, was chaired by President of Argentina Mauricio Macri under the theme “Building consensus for fair and sustainable development”.
The G20 was formed in 1999 to bring stability to the global financial system, promote long-term sustainable growth and strengthen global financial governance.
It has since expanded its agenda beyond economic and financial issues to encompass geopolitical matters and issues of peace and security, global governance, environment and international terrorism.
Following this summit, Japan will assume the G20 presidency.
Ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit, President Ramaphosa chaired an informal meeting of BRICS leaders as part of securing alignment among Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as emerging economies in their contribution to the G20 Summit.
During his visit to the Argentinian capital, President Ramaphosa held a number of bilateral meetings with Heads of State and Government as well as United Nations Secretary General António Guterres and African Union Chair and President of Rwanda Paul Kagame.
In these meetings the President engaged his counterparts on various forms of cooperation, including the deepening of trade and investment that is expected to contribute to job creation in South Africa and the achievement of inclusive and sustainable growth.
Some of these engagements centred on the role South Africa will play in the multilateral arena when it assumes a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2019-20, the third time that the country has done so.
President Ramaphosa will this afternoon participate in the Global Citizen Festival in Johannesburg, which forms part of the global observance of the centenary of the birth of former President Nelson Mandela. – SAnews.gov.za
