PM meeting with President Ramaphosa: 27 June 2022

The Prime Minister met South African President Ramaphosa at the G7 Summit in Germany today.

He began by updating the President on last week’s successful Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

The leaders agreed on the imperative for the world’s richest economies to support developing countries to build clean and green infrastructure. The Prime Minister commended the work being done through the South Africa Just Energy Transition Partnership and confirmed the UK will contribute up to $1.8bn towards it. The JETP which will accelerate South Africa’s transition to a green economy.

The Prime Minister and President Ramaphosa agreed that South Africa has enormous potential to follow in the UK’s footsteps and phase out the use of coal, and all the raw materials it needs to achieve green and sustainable growth.

The Prime Minister and President Ramaphosa discussed the ongoing atrocities being committed in Ukraine. The Prime Minister underlined the far reaching consequences of Putin’s aggression, in particular its impact on global food and energy prices – an impact the developing world is bearing the brunt of. The leaders agreed on the urgent need for Putin to open up a safe passage for grain to leave Ukraine and reaffirmed their support for the UN efforts on this.

The Prime Minister stressed that Putin must fail in Ukraine to prevent the creeping normalisation of his flagrant disregard for sovereignty and human rights.