President Cyril Ramaphosa will be leaving for the United Kingdom on Friday to attend the G7 Leaders Summit held in Cornwall over the weekend. He was invited to attend the gathering of the G7 group of rich nations by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Among other things, the leaders will be discussing efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic, global trade as well as climate change.
Ramaphosa will be accompanied by International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor.
The Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute, Karin Von Hippel, says the G7’s invitation to South Africa to attend the summit is a strategic move.
“South Korea, Japan, they’re also joining… I think Prime Minister Johnson sees these countries as like-minded and really wants to get them on board with the agenda being promoted, it can’t just be… the G7 countries, it needs to expand further and South Africa represents an anchor in Africa in many ways and so I think getting these countries on board will really help push forward the agenda that they’re trying to set.”
Leaders of G7 nations prepare for three-day summit:
South African High Commissioner to the UK, Nomatemba Tambo, says SA has also contributed an extraordinary amount of work, research and collaboration through the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think that it’s generally understood and appreciated that South Africa through this pandemic has done an extraordinary amount of work, research and collaborations in order to try to be part of the conversation around weakening this virus… So I think it’s for reasons like that that Prime Minister Boris Johnson thought we had a place at the table.”
G7 Summit to focus on recovering from COVID-19 and Climate Change:
