The outcome infuriated the United States, next year's G20 host. The White House accused South Africa of weaponizing its presidency to undermine the G20's founding principles on unanimous consensus. It said U.S. President Donald Trump would restore its "legitimacy" while hosting next year.

The G20 summit is supposed to be the pinnacle of multilateralism: the idea that nations can co-operate, compromise and co-ordinate for the greater good. But a lot has changed in the past two decades.

With the United States boycotting the summit, other nations sought to strike new deals, and some took a tougher tone with President Trump.

Tensions between the U.S. and Canada remain high following months of Trump administration hardball over trade deals.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa brought the G20 summit in Johannesburg to a close Saturday, and rejected a proposal for passing the gavel for next year's meeting in the United States.

As he brought the gavel down on a G20 summit with a tongue-in-cheek dig at the US, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa struck a defiant note towards the isolationist stance of President Donald Trump and his self-imposed exile from multilateral bodies Washington once championed.

Poorer nations at the Group of 20 summit in South Africa have urged world leaders to address climate action and debt issues affecting the developing world.

A Group of 20 leaders’ summit in South Africa adopted a declaration addressing the climate crisis and other global challenges on Saturday after it was drafted without U.S. input in a move a White House official called “shameful.

The G20 Summit in Johannesburg ended unusually as no U.S. delegate was present to receive the presidency gavel powering the fastest growing economies of the world. Meanwhile, PM Narendra Modi joined a trilateral meeting with Brazil’s Lula and South Africa’s Ramaphosa,