South Africa says president will not hand G20 to US embassy official

President Cyril Ramaphosa will not hand the next presidency of the G20 to a US embassy representative after President Donald Trump refused to attend this weekend’s summit, the South African government said Saturday.

The Trump administration has boycotted the Johannesburg meeting that wraps up on Sunday and said it would send the charge d’affaires of its US embassy in South Africa for the handover, with Washington assuming the 2026 presidency of the group of leading economies.

Ramaphosa “will not be handing over to the charge d’affaires from the US,” Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told journalists.

“The United States is a member of the G20, and if they want to be represented, they can still send anyone at the right level,” he said.

This would be the head of state, minister or a “special envoy appointed by the president”, Lamola said.

Otherwise, a handover could take place at government offices between officials of the same ranking, he said.

Trump’s absence from the Johannesburg summit follows his withdrawal of the United States from other multilateral events and his feud with Pretoria over a range of international and domestic issues including claims that white South Africans are persecuted.

The US embassy told South Africa ahead of the summit that its priorities “run counter” to US policy views and no joint declaration could be issued after the meeting because of its absence and objections.

The meeting, which brought together nearly two dozen world leaders, adopted Saturday a leaders’ declaration that called for peace in Ukraine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the “Occupied Palestinian Territory”, as well as safeguards on the global supply of critical minerals.

“We cannot be held back by one country,” presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya told reporters.