South Africa and the European Union are committed Thursday to defend multilateralism, on the eve of the G20 summit, by signing a partnership on critical minerals.

Through this agreement, presented as “unprecedented” by Cyril Ramaphosa, the EU seeks to reduce its dependence on China and to secure its supply of a dozen essential metals for defense technologies or renewable energies.

“We need these inputs to feed the clean energy transition, here as well as in Europe. The future of our economy therefore relies on fair and reliable supply chains”, a commented Ursula von der Leyen.

The EU also plans to set up an authority central to coordinate the procurement and storage of critical minerals, a declared the European Commissioner for Industry Stéphane Séjourné in a interview published on Wednesday by the Financial Times, explaining that the initiative aimed at preventing the United States from sourcing “under our nose”.

The United States has announced that it will not participate in the first G20 summit organized in Africa accusing the host country, led until 1994 by a white minority within a racist apartheid regime, to mistreat white people now.

According to Cyril Ramaphosa, however, South Africa received recently a note from Washington about participation in some form or another at the Johannesburg Summit.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Council António Costa participate in an EU-South Africa summit, in Ahead of the G20 summit scheduled for November 22 and 23, in Johannesburg, Africa from the South, November 20, 2025. South Africa is hosting the summit this year of the G20 despite the boycott of its most powerful member, although the president Cyril Ramaphosa said that the United States was now considering participate in one way or another.