Fundamental decisions will be made at the gathering even if the US is absent, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said<\/p>\n
Washington\u2019s decision to boycott the upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg is \u201ctheir loss,\u201d South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said, making clear that it will hurt the US more than the summit itself, which he says will proceed.
\nUS President Donald Trump announced last week that no official from his administration would attend the meeting of leaders from the world\u2019s largest economies from November 22 to 23. He cited claims that Afrikaners, a white minority group and descendants of Dutch settlers who dominated during the apartheid era, are being \u201ckilled and slaughtered,\u201d and their land \u201cillegally confiscated\u201d in South Africa.
\nRamaphosa has repeatedly rejected Trump\u2019s allegations as misinformation and met with the US leader in Washington in May in an attempt to defuse tensions.
\nAddressing reporters outside parliament in Cape Town on Wednesday, Ramaphosa called the Trump administration\u2019s decision \u201cunfortunate.\u201d\u00a0\u201cThe G20 will go on, all other heads of state will be here. In the end we will take fundamental decisions and their absence is their loss,\u201d he told reporters, according to AP.
\nRamaphosa said that \u201cboycott politics\u201d have never really worked in his experience. He criticized the US for abandoning the \u201cvery important role\u201d that it \u201cshould be playing as the biggest economy in the world,\u201d the agency quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
South Africa doesn\u2019t belong in G20 \u2013 Trump<\/p>\n
Speaking at the American Business Forum in Miami last week, Trump argued that South Africa \u201cshouldn\u2019t even be\u201d a member of the G20 and that it is a \u201ctotal disgrace\u201d that it is hosting the summit.
\nSouth Africa assumed the rotating presidency of the G20 in December, becoming the first African nation to lead the forum. It will host the gathering under the theme \u201cSolidarity, Equality, Sustainability.\u201d The US is due to take over the chairmanship next.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: US confirms South Africa G20 boycott<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped a G20 foreign ministers\u2019 meeting in South Africa, accusing Pretoria of promoting an \u201canti-American\u201d agenda. Trump\u2019s absence will mark the first time a US leader has skipped a G20 summit since the forum began meeting at head-of-state level in 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fundamental decisions will be made at the gathering even if the US is absent, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said Washington\u2019s decision to boycott the upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t