By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Barely 48 hours to the kick off of the G20 Summit in South Africa on Saturday, Washington has told Pretoria that it will take part in this weekend’s G20 summit in Johannesburg, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday.
President Donald Trump’s administration had earlier said it would not take part in the November 22-23 meeting and that no final statement by G20 leaders could be issued without its presence.
“We have received notice from the United States, a notice which we are still in discussions with them over, about a change of mind about participating in one shape, form, or other in the summit,” Ramaphosa told reporters.
“This comes at a late hour before the summit begins. And so therefore, we do need to engage in those types of discussions to see how practical it is and what it finally really means,” he added.
The United States had clashed with South Africa over various international and domestic policies this year, extending its objections to Pretoria’s G20 priorities for the meeting of leading economies being held for the first time in Africa.
In a note to the government on Saturday, the US embassy repeated that it would not attend the summit, saying South Africa’s G20 priorities “run counter to the US policy views and we cannot support consensus on any documents negotiated under your presidency”.
In response, Ramaphosa said earlier Thursday that South Africa would not be bullied.
“It cannot be that a country’s geographical location or income or army determines who has a voice and who is spoken down to,” Ramaphosa told delegates at a G20 curtain-raiser event.
There “should be no bullying of one nation by another”, he said.
But after notice from Washington that it had reconsidered, Ramaphosa said the change of heart was “a positive sign”.
“All countries are here, and the United States, the biggest economy in the world, needs to be here,” he said.
“So it’s pleasing to hear that there is a change of approach, and so we are still discussing how that will manifest.”
It was not immediately clear how Washington would join the meeting, where about 40 countries will be present, including several heads of state.
South Africa chose “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability” as the theme of its presidency of the G20, which comprises 19 countries and two regional bodies — the European Union and the African Union.
Trump has singled out South Africa for harsh treatment on a number of issues since he returned to the White House in January, notably making debunked claims of white Afrikaners being systematically “killed and slaughtered” in the country.
He expelled South Africa’s ambassador in March and has imposed 30 per cent trade tariffs, the highest in sub-Saharan Africa.
