The absence of some leaders from G20 ‘is not the end of the world’, says Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa will soldier on despite two senior American government officials snubbing G20-related meetings in the country.

The United States (US) Secretary of State Marco Rubio failed to attend a meeting of foreign ministers in the south of Johannesburg this week. The US Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, also announced that he would not be attending a G20 meeting of finance ministers and reserve bank governors, which is supposed to be held in Cape Town next week.

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Senior American officials snub G20

Bessent said he would not attend the meeting because of government obligations in Washington, in the US.

Ramaphosa was diplomatic in responding to these absences.

“We have been told that the secretary of state is not here and the secretary of treasury is very busy in Washington, and we accept that that is their choice, their freedom to choose. I sometimes do not attend certain summits, I get very busy, and when I am not able to, I often make sure that South Africa is represented,” he said.

‘They are missing out’

Ramaphosa said South Africa welcomes those who can attend the G20 activities, but he said those who cannot make it are missing out.

“When they do not come, they are missing out big time, but we are hopeful that we will have as many leaders as possible who will be able to come. The absence of some leaders is not the end of the world as long as the G20 family is able to meet and discuss important issues and come out with a declaration, that is what we aim for,” he said.

Despite the US playing an important role in the G20 summits, Ramaphosa said it would be wrong to gauge the summit’s success by who attended and who did not.

“It (G20) moves on; it powers ahead and takes decisions,” he said,

Ramaphosa said South Africa is doing its best to ensure that communications lines are open between Pretoria and Washington, despite negative actions by US government officials.

“In our case, we are committed to having a good relationship with the US; we do relate to them on a number of ways and what has ensued now with the secretary of state not attending is, in the end, not a train smash because the US is still represented here, and they are part of the G20,” he said.

It is still not clear whether US President Donald Trump will attend the G20 leaders’ summit later this year.

Relationship with Trump

However, Ramaphosa told reporters that he and Trump have a collegial relationship.

He said that after Trump was elected, they had spoken about the G20 summit and that South Africa would hand over the presidency of the summit to the US.

The two leaders had also spoken about playing golf together in South Africa.

“We also spoke about a number of South Africans whom he holds in high regard particularly in the golfing field, he being a better golfer than I am, he said maybe when I come, we should play golf together, and I said I will start practicing to get to that level,” he said.

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