PNN – South Africa on Thursday protested the U.S. president’s decision to exclude it from next year’s G20 summit in Miami, calling the move “punitive.”
According to the report of Pakistan News Network citing Russia Today, Donald Trump has announced that South Africa will not be invited to the 2026 summit, which he intends to host at his golf resort in Miami. In a post on Truth Social, he wrote that South Africa “has shown the world it is not a country worthy of belonging to any institution,” and again accused it of allowing “the deadly persecution of white farmers.”
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Pretoria responded by stressing that South Africa is a legitimate member of the G20 and that the status of member states is determined collectively by the group. The South African presidency added that the country “is an independent constitutional democracy and will not accept insults from any nation regarding its membership or its qualifications to participate in global forums,” pledging to attend all G20 meetings.
Tensions between the two countries have risen over a range of domestic and foreign policy issues and escalated into a full-blown crisis after Washington skipped last week’s G20 summit in Johannesburg. One key point of contention is South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice over events in Gaza.
Trump also refused to take part in the symbolic handover of the G20 presidency from South Africa to the U.S. at the end of the Johannesburg summit. In response, South Africa on Tuesday quietly passed the rotating presidency to a representative of the U.S. embassy during a brief ceremony at the foreign ministry, while stressing the need for Washington to participate at an appropriate level.