# G20 The Group of Twenty is the forum where the world's largest economies coordinate — nineteen countries plus the European Union and, since 2023, the African Union. It was created at finance-minister level in 1999 and elevated to leaders' summits during the 2008 financial crisis, which remains its defining accomplishment: a coordinated global stimulus that most economists credit with preventing a second Great Depression. It has no charter, no secretariat, and no binding authority. The presidency rotates annually and the host country sets the agenda. **The United States holds the 2026 presidency.** What it is doing with it is the reason this page matters. ## The Johannesburg Rupture The 2025 summit met in Johannesburg on 22–23 November — the first G20 leaders' summit held on African soil, and the culmination of four consecutive Global South presidencies (Indonesia, India, Brazil, South Africa). **The United States boycotted it.** Argentina, China, Indonesia, and Mexico also skipped at leader level. A 122-paragraph declaration was adopted anyway, over US objection — a notable outcome, since G20 declarations are consensus documents and the US had assumed its absence would prevent one. Then the handover broke. The South African president **refused to hand the presidency to a junior US embassy official**, declining to treat the transfer as a ceremonial formality delegated to staff. The US subsequently sought to reverse its boycott and join late. On 27 November 2025 the administration announced that **South Africa would not be invited to the 2026 summit**, citing the treatment of Afrikaners and the handover dispute. South Africa missed the first sherpa meeting as a result. A G20 host disinviting a G20 member has no precedent. ## The 2026 Presidency **Venue: Trump National Doral Miami — a property owned by the President. Dates: 14–15 December 2026.** It is the same property the administration was forced to abandon as the 2020 G7 site after bipartisan emolument objections. **The agenda has three pillars:** removing regulatory burdens, unlocking affordable and secure energy supply chains, and pioneering new technologies. **What was cut:** climate change, debt sustainability, development finance, inequality, and sustainability — the substantive core of the last four presidencies' work. [[Scott Bessent]] has criticized the G20 for becoming "the G100," and the US is restricting observer participation, though Poland is invited as the world's twentieth-largest economy. ### The 2026 calendar | Date | Event | |---|---| | Dec 2025 | First US sherpa meeting, Washington | | 16 Apr 2026 | Finance track, Washington | | **29–30 Aug 2026** | **Finance deputies, Asheville NC** | | **31 Aug – 1 Sep 2026** | **Finance ministers and central bank governors, Asheville NC** | | 15 Oct 2026 | Bangkok | | 14–15 Dec 2026 | Leaders' summit, Doral | The Asheville ministerial took place as scheduled at the end of August 2026; Treasury framed the venue choice as post-Hurricane Helene regional revitalization. The next dated events on the calendar are the **October 15 Bangkok** meeting and the **December 14–15 leaders' summit at Doral**. The Peterson Institute asked in March 2026 whether Miami is "headed for a train wreck," flagging the risk of a divided declaration with Global South states issuing an alternative statement, plus leader-level flashpoints. ## The Putin invitation — September 2026 On **Wednesday, September 23, 2026**, Secretary of State [[Marco Rubio]] told reporters that [[Donald Trump]] has invited Russian president [[Vladimir Putin]] to the December summit at Doral. Nothing about Russia's position has changed to earn it. Russia has not ended its invasion of [[Ukraine]]; Putin has not been inside a G20 leaders' meeting since 2019. The administration's stated reasoning is inducement — that Putin is likelier to end the war if he is brought back into the forums than if he is kept out. Critics make the obvious reply: inclusion is the concession, and it is being handed over before anything is asked in return. ### The Senate pushback, reported September 25 **Fourteen senators**, seven from each party, wrote to Trump urging him to rescind the invitation. The letter was led by: | Senator | Position | |---|---| | [[Roger Wicker]] (R-MS) | Chair, Senate Armed Services Committee | | [[Jeanne Shaheen]] (D-NH) | Ranking Democrat, Senate Foreign Relations Committee | [[Mitch McConnell]] and [[John Cornyn]] are among the Republican signatories — which is the part that matters, since it puts the objection inside the leadership stratum of the president's own party rather than at its margins. > [!quote] Letter of fourteen senators to President Trump, reported September 25, 2026 > "President Putin bears sole responsibility for launching Russia's full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine." … "Allowing him to participate in a G20 Summit in the United States raises serious concerns about legitimizing and normalizing a government that continues to attack Ukrainian civilian targets every day." > [!warning] Two details not carried > Reporting differs on whether the letter is dated **September 24** or the 25th; it became public on the 25th and only that is recorded here. One outlet's list of the twelve additional signatories includes a name with no matching sitting senator, so the full roster is not reproduced — only the two leads and the two Republican signatories corroborated across sources. ### Why it belongs on this page The capture argument above turns on what the host can do with a presidency that has no charter to stop it. Cutting the agenda to three items and disinviting South Africa were the first two demonstrations. **Choosing the guest list is the third, and it is the one with a foreign-policy payload**: a leader under sanction for an ongoing war of aggression is readmitted to the top table not by consensus of the membership but by the unilateral decision of whoever holds the chair that year. The precedent is the reason to record it rather than the episode. The presidency rotates in 2027. A host that can add a leader the membership has excluded, and a host that can subtract a member the membership has admitted, are the same power read in two directions — and once demonstrated, it is available to every host after. ## Why It Matters Here The G20 is the vault's clearest example of a **fourth mode** of dealing with an international institution — one the [[US Treaty and Organization Withdrawal Timeline]] didn't have a category for until this year. The established modes are exit (the [[2026 International Organizations Withdrawal Memorandum]], the WHO, the UNFCCC), procedural strangulation (the [[World Trade Organization]] Appellate Body, killed by not filling seats), and defunding without exit (the [[Organization of American States]], the UN arrears). The G20 is **capture**. The US did not leave, defund, or disable it. It took the chair, cut the agenda down to three items it likes, disinvited a member it objects to, restricted observers, and scheduled the summit at a hotel the President owns. The institution continues; it has simply been converted, for one year, into an instrument of the host. That is a more interesting move than withdrawal, and a harder one to argue against on sovereignty grounds — because nothing has been surrendered. It also has a natural test built in: the presidency rotates in 2027, and whatever precedents are set at Doral will be available to the next host. Worth noting alongside: the United States hosts the **[[G7]] in 2027**, chairing both forums back to back. ## See Also - [[G7]] — the smaller, richer, more cohesive forum - [[Vladimir Putin]] · [[Marco Rubio]] · [[Ukraine]] · [[Russia]] - [[Roger Wicker]] · [[Jeanne Shaheen]] · [[Mitch McConnell]] · [[John Cornyn]] - [[BRICS]] — the counter-bloc, meeting in New Delhi in September 2026 - [[OECD]] · [[International Monetary Fund]] · [[World Bank]] - [[US Treaty and Organization Withdrawal Timeline]] — the four modes in sequence - [[World Trade Organization]] — the strangulation case - [[Organization of American States]] — the defunding case