U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that South Africa will not be invited to the 2026 G20 summit in Miami, the first time a member nation has been excluded in the forum’s two-decade history
The move follows Washington’s boycott of last week’s G20 leaders’ meeting in Johannesburg, which Trump refused to attend, accusing South Africa of “weaponising” its position as host.
In a social-media post, Trump claimed that South Africa declined to allow a U.S. Embassy representative to assume the G20 presidency at the closing ceremony. He described the government in Pretoria as “not worthy of membership anywhere” and said the United States would halt remaining payments and subsidies to the country “effective immediately”.
Trump also revived long-standing and widely debunked claims of “genocide” against white farmers in South Africa — allegations consistently dismissed as false by U.S. officials, researchers, and human-rights organisations. His administration had already suspended aid to Pretoria in February, citing alleged discrimination.
Bilateral relations have deteriorated sharply throughout the year. In March, the U.S. State Department expelled South Africa’s ambassador, declaring him persona non grata. The United States then declined to send senior officials to Johannesburg for the G20 summit, leaving no high-ranking American representative to take part in the ceremonial handover.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's office called Trump's post "regrettable." Ramaphosa said that since the U.S. delegation was not present at the summit last week, "instruments of the G20 Presidency were duly handover to a U.S. Embassy official at the Headquarters of South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation."
"It is regrettable that despite the efforts and numerous attempts by President Ramaphosa and his administration to reset the diplomatic relationship with the U.S., President Trump continues to apply punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country," Ramaphosa's office said.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is preparing to elevate Poland’s role at the 2026 summit. Polish President Karol Nawrocki — a close Trump ally — has said he was invited to next year’s G20 and is lobbying for Poland to join the group. Warsaw argues that, as the world’s twentieth-largest economy by certain measures and a country with uninterrupted growth for 35 years, its bid is justified.
The 2026 G20 summit is scheduled to be held at Trump’s Doral golf resort in Florida next December.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has ordered Iran's armed forces to respond to any threat immediately and without geographical li...
A tenth-grade student was critically injured after a man attacked her with a chainsaw inside a classroom in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur distri...
Cryptocurrencies are volatile, and their crashes make headlines. But does a slump in digital coins ever spill over into the pounds, dollars and eur...
The Middle East conflict remains tense as diplomatic efforts continue alongside renewed Houthi attacks. Iran says it remains open to mediation, while the Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards the kingdom.
Evacuations and the provision of humanitarian aid in the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian town of Oleshky have begun, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday. In a statement on Telegram, David Arakhamia said a six-day ceasefire was holding, and that more details would follow.
Qatari mediators returned to Tehran on Friday as part of efforts to reach a deal between the U.S. and Iran, according to an official briefed on the talks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia remains willing to rebuild relations with European countries but warned that any wider conflict on the continent would leave no winners, as he commented on recent diplomatic contacts with Nordic leaders and growing security concerns in the Baltic region.
Hackers have pulled off a staggering $6.3 billion cryptocurrency heist targeting Binance, shaking confidence in one of the world's biggest digital asset exchanges and sending crypto prices tumbling. U.S. analysts suspect North Korea was behind the attack.
A tenth-grade student was critically injured after a man attacked her with a chainsaw inside a classroom in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district. The girl suffered severe injuries to her head, neck and back, while a classmate who tried to protect her was also hurt.
Deep divisions over Russia's war in Ukraine overshadowed a G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta on Friday, as European officials criticised Moscow's participation and refused to join a traditional group photograph with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The U.S. has approved the sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine in a deal worth an estimated $2.1 billion, but Kyiv could face years of delays before receiving the weapons it urgently needs to defend against intensifying Russian attacks.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global body responsible for monitoring money laundering and terrorist financing risks, has removed four countries from its so-called “grey list” after determining they had made sufficient progress in addressing weaknesses in their financial cr
The death toll from the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has surpassed 5,000, according to government figures released on Friday, as health authorities continue to struggle to contain the country's worst-ever Ebola epidemic.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment