President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested he may skip the upcoming G20 leaders’ summit in South Africa, signalling a further deterioration in US-South Africa relations already strained over contentious policies and international legal disputes.
Reports said Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he disapproved the host country’s domestic and foreign stance, including its land reform policies and diplomatic moves against Israel.
“I’ve had a lot of problems with South Africa. They have some very bad policies,” he said, adding he might send a representative instead.
The G20 summit, scheduled for November, is a hallmark event for South Africa as it holds the presidency from December 2024 to November 2025.
Trump’s potential boycott follows an earlier snub by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who avoided a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Pretoria.
The diplomatic chill has deep roots.
In February, Trump signed an executive order slashing US financial aid to South Africa, escalating tensions that began when Pretoria filed a high-profile case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in its war in Gaza – a move strongly opposed by Washington under both Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who continues to urge Trump’s attendance at the summit, has defended his country’s domestic agenda.
These include black economic empowerment initiatives aimed at redressing systemic racial inequality and land reforms that Washington claims could threaten white landowners. Ramaphosa has repeatedly rejected the white genocide allegations.
JN/APA