G20 finance chiefs to meet under tariff cloud in South Africa
The club, which came to fore as a forum for international cooperation to combat the global financial crisis, has for years been hobbled by disputes among key players exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine and Western sanctions on Moscow.
Host South Africa, under its presidency motto "Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability," has aimed to promote an African agenda, with topics including the high cost of capital and funding for climate change action.
The G20 aims to coordinate policies but its agreements are non-binding.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will not attend the two-day meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in the coastal city of Durban, marking his second absence from a G20 event in South Africa this year.
Bessent also skipped February's Cape Town gathering, where several officials from China, Japan and Canada were also absent, even though Washington is due to assume the G20 rotating presidency at the end of the year.
Michael Kaplan, U.S. acting undersecretary for international affairs, will represent Washington at the meetings.
A G20 delegate, who asked not to be named, said Bessent's absence was not ideal but that the United States was engaging in discussions on trade, the global economy and climate language.
Finance ministers from India, France and Russia are also set to miss the Durban meeting.
South Africa's central bank governor Lesetja Kganyago said that representation was what mattered most.
"What matters is, is there somebody with a mandate sitting behind the flag and are all countries represented with somebody sitting behind the flag?" Kganyago told Reuters.
U.S. officials have said little publicly about their plans for the presidency next year, but one source familiar with the plans said Washington would reduce the number of non-financial working groups, and streamline the summit schedule.
Brad Setser, a former U.S. official now at the Council on Foreign Relations, said he expected it to be "kind of a scaled-back G20 with less expectation of substantive outcomes."
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