France, Feb. 21 -- Top diplomats from the Group of 20 major economies gathered in South Africa on Thursday and Friday for meetings focused on a packed global agenda, but these were overshadowed by the absence of the US's secretary of stateMarco Rubio.

As a curtain-raiser to the G20 summit in November 2025, the foreign ministers of the group members gather for talks over two days in Johannesburg.

The meetings started at 2pm local time (1200 GMT) on Thursday with a keynote from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

South Africa, the first African country to lead the forum, took over the G20 presidency in November last year in a move meant to be an opportunity to get wealthy nations to listen to their counterparts from the global south...