'Good to be here': Germany's Merz critical of Trump's G20 boycott

"I don't think it was a good decision on the part of the American administration to be absent here. But that's something the American administration must decide for itself," Merz said at a press conference as the two-day meeting drew to a close.

"For our part, it was good for us to be here," he added.

Merz said the summit, which was overshadowed by the absence of a number of world leaders and fierce debate over the US plan for peace in Ukraine, reflected the fact that "the world is being reordered at the moment and new ties are being created here."

The US, he added, only "played a relatively minor role" in all of this - including in the closing remarks of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

"So a lot took place here, and in this America was only mentioned in passing," Merz said.

Trump did not attend the G20 talks because he accuses the South African government of severe repression against white farmers. South Africa rejects the accusations as unfounded.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and the leaders of Mexico and Argentina also cancelled their participation in the first G20 summit on the African continent.

Due to the US decision to skip the Johannesburg summit, South Africa cancelled a handover ceremony to symbolically pass the rotating G20 presidency to the United States on Sunday.

The German chancellor said he had no idea how the US would organize next year's summit, but that he had heard that the concluding meeting would be held at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The G20 comprises 19 countries plus the European Union and African Union.