G20 foreign ministers meet in South Africa without US on board

JOHANNESBURG

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan arrives ahead of the G20 Foreign Minister Meeting at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg on Feb. 20, 2025.

Top diplomats from the Group of 20 major economies, including Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, will convene in South Africa on Thursday for a meeting dominated by a packed global agenda but overshadowed by a snub by the top U.S. envoy.

As a curtain-raiser to the G20 summit in November, the foreign ministers will gather for talks over two days, held for the first time in Africa.

The meeting is set to start at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) with a keynote from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

South Africa, the first African country to lead the forum, took over the G20 presidency last year in a move meant to be an opportunity to get wealthy nations to listen to poorer counterparts.

The group currently consists of 19 countries, as well as the European Union and the African Union, making up more than 80 percent of global GDP and two-thirds of the world population.

But the group's richest member, the United States, will skip the two-day talks after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he will not attend and accused Pretoria of an "anti-American" agenda.

Wars and conflicts in Africa and Europe would be common themes, Xolisa Mabhongo, South Africa's Ambassador/Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said on Wednesday.

The talks come amid heightened tensions over the Russia-Ukraine conflict after U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to blame Kiev for the fact that Russia invaded it nearly three years ago.

Trump's comments followed hours after talks between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia that Ukraine did not attend.

The "rift forming between the U.S. and its European partners" has been laid bare, Singh said.

This risks "derailing" South Africa's ability to push through a "common developmental agenda", he added.

Turkish top diplomat Fidan arrived at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Fidan is expected to address two sessions during the meeting, one on the “global geopolitical situation” and the other on G20 objectives for 2025 under the South African term presidency.

Sources stressed that Fidan would raise the recent situations in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon and the Russian-Ukrainian war, where he will outline Türkiye’s stance in all of these geopolitical conflicts. He will also underline the growing significance of the G20 in the face of mounting challenges of the international system.

  'Symbolic message' 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese and Indian counterparts have confirmed their attendance.

European diplomats including France's Jean-Noel Barrot and the U.K.'s David Lammy will likewise be present.

But the United States will be represented by Dana Brown, the deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in Pretoria.

"It might be at the lower level, but they will be represented. It's not a complete boycott of South Africa's G20," South Africa's foreign minister Ronald Lamola reassured a press conference on Wednesday.

Still, Rubio's absence will further "distract the focus of the meeting," warned William Gumede, professor of public management at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

"It sends a symbolic message to Africans: the U.S. is not taking Africa seriously," he said.

Earlier this month, the United States froze desperately needed aid to Africa, sending many governments scrambling to find funds for services including health.

South Africa has particularly been in the crosshairs of Washington which cut off financial support to the country over a contentious land policy and a case against U.S.-ally Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Trump has accused the government of Ramaphosa of "confiscating" land from white farmers and treating "certain classes" of people badly, without providing evidence.

Pretoria has rejected the claim as misinformed and said they will "not be intimidated, distracted, nor bullied into submission".

U.S. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent announced Thursday that he would not attend the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors, scheduled to be held in Cape Town next week.

For analyst Gumede, a question lingered ahead of Thursday's foreign ministers meeting — "How can South Africa salvage this and turn the absence of the U.S. into an opportunity?"