President Donald Trump announced on Friday that no US officials will attend the Group of 20 summit in South Africa later this month, citing the treatment of white farmers in the country.
“It is an absolute disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” Trump posted on his Truth social network.
The Trump administration has long accused the South African government of discriminating against its white minority, citing alleged land seizures and violence.
The South African government has denied that Afrikaners and other white South Africans are being persecuted.
Trump said in his post, “No American government official will be involved as long as human rights abuses continue.”
Trump said at a business event in Miami earlier this week that South Africa should be kicked out of the group of the world’s largest economies, saying: “South Africa should not even be in the GS anymore, because what happened there is bad.”
JD Vance plans to skip the summit
Trump announced in September that he would not attend the G20 summit this year, but Vice President J.D. Vance would attend in his place.
On Friday, as Trump reported that US officials were planning to skip the summit, Reuters news agency reported without naming an official that “the vice president is not traveling to South Africa for the G20, nor does he have any plans for international travel in the near future.”
Each year, a different country assumes the presidency of the G20 and sets the agenda for that year, with the US taking on the role this year after the summit on November 22-23.
Trump plans to hold next year’s summit at his golf resort in Miami – the same location he proposed hosting the 2020 Group of Seven (G7) summit during his first term.
Edited by: Roshni Majumdar