In addition to his partnership with Presidents Hollande and Humala and Chancellor Merkel, he regularly engaged with other key leaders, including President Jacob Zuma of South Africa (South Africa was president of the G-77 and China negotiating group), President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey (President of G20), President Xi linping of China and President Evo Morales of Bolivia. Rather than leave high-level engagement at the conference to the end, as had been done at Copenhagen, the first day of COP 21 was devoted to a Leaders Event, which brought together over 150 Heads of State and Government. This approach had been proposed early in 2015 by the COP 21 Presidency and backed by the Secretary-General, with the goal of generating high-level political momentum without the contentious and messy conclusion evidenced in Copenhagen. In effect, the event aimed to provide a mandate from the highest political level—something which would obligate negotiators to seek consensus.