Johannesburg: The United States government has indicated that it has had a “change of mind” and wants to participate at the Group of 20 summit in South Africa in a reverse of its boycott, the South African president said Thursday.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the summit host country had received communication from the US at “the 11th hour” and was now working on the logistics to accommodate the US.
US President Donald Trump had announced that his administration would boycott the two-day meeting of rich and developing nations in Johannesburg that opens on Saturday. Trump has said the US was boycotting over his claims that Ramaphosa’s government is violently persecuting a white minority.
Ramaphosa, who was speaking after a meeting with top European Union officials in Johannesburg, said communications from the US had been received while he was at that meeting.
“The United States is a member of the G20, they are an original member of the G20, so they have the right to be here,” Ramaphosa told reporters. “And all we are seeking to do is looking at the practicalities … for them to participate.”
Ramaphosa said “hopefully” the US seat at the summit would be occupied when it opens, but gave no indication who might represent the US government.
Trump had said that Vice President JD Vance would represent the US before he announced the boycott.
Ramaphosa earlier Thursday had said that the meeting would issue a joint declaration despite the US boycott and what he said was pressure from Washington not to issue one. He said the US had sent diplomatic communication to South Africa advising that “there should be no declaration adopted” at the summit because the US was not there and therefore there would be no consensus.
Instead, the US wants a toned-down statement from South Africa only to cap the summit, which is a culmination of more than 120 meetings that Africa’s most advanced economy has hosted since it took over the G20’s rotating presidency for this year.
Trump has repeatedly targeted South Africa for criticism since he returned to office. He held a tense meeting with Ramaphosa at the White House in May, when he confronted South Africa’s leader with baseless claims of widespread violence against Afrikaners in South Africa.
The US president has repeated his claims in the lead-up to the G20 that Ramaphosa’s Black-led government is pursuing racist anti-white policies against the Afrikaner white minority.
The US will take over the rotating presidency of the G20 from South Africa, and Ramaphosa has previously said he will have to pass it to Trump’s “empty chair” in Johannesburg, though he said he would talk to Trump after the summit.
The G20 is a bloc made up of 19 nations, including the richest but also the top developing economies. The European Union and the African Union are also members.
South Africa, which is the first African nation to hold the rotating presidency, is hoping to use its summit to make progress on issues especially affecting poor countries. That includes mitigating the impact of climate change and weather-related disasters, easing debt burdens for developing countries and confronting global wealth inequality.
The US has previously derided South Africa’s priorities for the group, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipping a G20 foreign ministers meeting in February and dismissing South Africa’s priorities as being about diversity, equity and inclusion and climate change.
Rubio said he would not waste US taxpayer money on that agenda.
Other leaders are also skipping the G20 summit, including China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Argentina’s Javier Milei, but they have sent delegations to represent them.
“The only country that is not in the room is the United States, and, of course, is their choice not to be in the room,” Xolisa Mabhongo, a South African ambassador to the G20, told national broadcaster SABC this week.
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