Finance chiefs of G20 countries were close to agreeing a common position on trade and other global challenges on Friday, which would be the first since U.S. President Donald Trump's election victory and tariff war.

South Africa has downplayed the absence of US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent at a meeting of G20 finance chiefs, saying it believed the world’s biggest economy is still “committed” to the grouping as the gathering starts in Durban.

South Africa called for greater cooperation among the Group of 20 advanced economies, as finance ministers and central bank governors gathered under the cloud of US President Donald Trump’s trade war.