What happens at a G20 summit, and who hosts it in 2026
What happens at a G20 summit, who is in the group, why nothing it agrees is binding, and what to expect when the US hosts leaders in Miami in December 2026.
Why it matters
The G20 is where the largest economies try to agree on growth, debt, trade and financial rules, and its deals shape decisions at the IMF and in national capitals. The 2026 summit in Miami will show how much of that cooperation still works.
A G20 summit is a two-day meeting where leaders of 19 countries, the European Union and the African Union sign off on deals their officials spent a year negotiating. Nothing they agree is legally binding. The next one is on 14 and 15 December 2026 at Trump National Doral Miami, in Florida.
Quick answer: The summit is the last step of a year of meetings run by the country holding the rotating presidency, the United States in 2026. Leaders hold formal sessions, meet one another on the sidelines and try to agree a joint declaration by consensus. The presidency then passes to the next host, the United Kingdom in 2027.
Who hosts the G20 in 2026?
The United States holds the presidency for 2026 and hosted its first meeting of sherpas (the leaders’ personal negotiators) in Washington on 15 and 16 December 2025. President Donald Trump will chair the leaders’ summit at his golf resort in Doral, near Miami. The White House has said the resort will host “at cost.”
The US presidency has a narrower agenda than recent hosts. According to the State Department, its three priorities are economic growth through lighter regulation, affordable and reliable energy, and new technologies, plus a working group on trade. Mary Svenstrup of the Center for Global Development, a Washington think tank, wrote in December 2025 that she expected the US to drop or merge working groups on issues such as health and climate, and to center the year on the finance track run by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.
Two guest-list questions hang over Miami:
- South Africa: In November 2025, Trump said South Africa would not be invited, after a dispute over the handover at the end of the Johannesburg summit. South Africa’s government said it would keep taking part as a full member.
- Russia: Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on 23 September 2026 that President Vladimir Putin had been invited. The Kremlin said no decision had been made. Going would be Putin’s first G20 summit in person since 2019, Al Jazeera reported.
The G20’s foreign ministers meet in Atlanta, Georgia, on 30 and 31 October 2026, the last big ministerial gathering before the summit.
Who is in the G20?
The members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States, plus the European Union and the African Union. The African Union joined as a permanent member at the New Delhi summit in September 2023.
Together, members account for about 85% of world economic output, about 75% of global exports and about two-thirds of the world’s population, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Hosts may also invite guest countries and international organizations.
What actually happens at a G20 summit?
Most of the work is done before the leaders arrive. The G20 has no headquarters, no permanent staff and no founding treaty, so the host country runs the whole year.
- Set the agenda. The new presidency picks its priorities when it takes over at the start of December.
- Negotiate in two tracks. Sherpas handle political and development issues. Finance ministers and central bank governors handle the economy, from debt to interest rates and inflation.
- Hold ministerial meetings. Ministers for foreign affairs, trade, energy and other areas meet through the year, often in different cities of the host country.
- Meet as leaders. Over two days, heads of government sit in formal sessions and hold separate one-to-one meetings on the sidelines, which often make more news than the summit itself.
- Agree a declaration. The final statement is agreed by consensus, so any member can hold it up.
- Hand over. The host passes the presidency to the next country.
Is anything the G20 agrees legally binding?
No. A G20 declaration is a political promise. Members carry it out through their own laws or through bodies such as the International Monetary Fund.
Some of those promises have mattered. At the London summit on 2 April 2009, leaders announced what they called “an additional $1.1 trillion programme” to restore credit and growth: tripling the resources available to the IMF to $750 billion, a $250 billion allocation of the IMF’s reserve asset, the special drawing right, at least $100 billion of extra lending by development banks and $250 billion for trade finance. The same meeting agreed to create the Financial Stability Board, which coordinates rules for banks and markets.
Six months later in Pittsburgh, leaders “designated the G20 to be the premier forum for our international economic cooperation,” taking over a role the smaller G7 had played. In 2021 the G20 backed a global minimum tax on large companies.
How a declaration survives a disagreement
Consensus does not mean everyone agrees on everything. It means everyone can live with the wording, and the art of a G20 summit is finding that wording.
The 2022 Bali summit is the textbook case. With Russia at the table eight months after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the declaration said “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine,” then added: “There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions.” Everyone signed.
When even that fails, the host issues a “chair’s summary” instead of a joint statement. The first meeting of finance ministers under India’s presidency, in February 2023, ended that way. A footnote recorded that the paragraphs on Ukraine, copied from the Bali text, “were agreed to by all member countries except Russia and China.” When you see “chair’s summary” on a G20 document, read it as a sign that consensus broke down.
Consensus has become harder. At the Johannesburg summit on 22 November 2025, the first G20 summit held in Africa, the United States stayed away, and the other leaders adopted their declaration at the start of the meeting rather than at the end.
G20 vs G7 vs the UN Security Council
| G20 | G7 | UN Security Council | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Members | 19 countries, EU, African Union | Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US | 15 countries, 5 of them permanent |
| Legally binding decisions | No | No | Yes |
| How decisions are made | Consensus | Consensus | Nine votes and no veto |
| Permanent staff | None | None | UN Secretariat |
Source: Council on Foreign Relations; UN Charter.
The Security Council is the only one of the three whose decisions countries must carry out, which is why its veto rules are fought over so hard. The G20 is a forum: its strength is getting the largest economies around one table.
Where is the next G20 summit?
The G20 started in 1999 as a meeting of finance ministers after the Asian financial crisis. It became a leaders’ summit in November 2008, when the first one met in Washington during the global financial crisis.
| Year | Host city | Dates | What stood out |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | New Delhi, India | 9 to 10 Sep | African Union joins as a permanent member |
| 2024 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 18 to 19 Nov | Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty launched |
| 2025 | Johannesburg, South Africa | 22 to 23 Nov | First G20 summit in Africa; US stayed away |
| 2026 | Doral, Miami, United States | 14 to 15 Dec | First US-hosted summit since Pittsburgh in 2009 |
| 2027 | Manchester, United Kingdom | 27 to 28 Nov | First UK-hosted summit since London in 2009 |
Source: G20 Research Group, University of Toronto; State Department; UK government announcements reported by ITV.
What happens next: Foreign ministers meet in Atlanta on 30 and 31 October. Leaders meet in Doral on 14 and 15 December. The presidency then passes to the United Kingdom, which will hold the 2027 summit at Manchester Central.
