South African President confirms US will attend G20 Summit
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed that the United States will participate in the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg this weekend. President Donald Trump has slammed South Africa in recent weeks over the government’s policies and he refused to attend.
“We have received notice from the United States about a change of mind about participating in one shape, form or another,” Ramaphosa said on Thursday night. He noted that “boycott politics never work”. “It’s always best to be inside the tent than being outside of the tent. The tent is G20, all countries are here, and the US, the biggest economy in the world, needs to be here,” he added.
Ramaphosa earlier warned that the G20 declaration will proceed with or without the United States, insisting that Pretoria “will not agree to be bullied by anyone”.
The two-day mega summit will be hosted at Nasrec, outside Johannesburg, and only four countries will not be represented by their heads-of-state. They are the USA, Russia, Mexico and Argentina. China will be represented by Premier Li Qiang.
Meanwhile, the British-based charity,Oxfam, has noted that the US$2.2 trillion that was made by billionairesin the world's leading economies last year would have been enough to lift all the world's poor out of poverty. It urged the G20 group to back initiatives by the host nation to address massive global wealth inequality and the debt undermining developing countries. “The annual cost to lift up the 3.8 billion people who currently live below the poverty line is $1.65 trillion,” it said in a statement.
-0- PANA CU/MA 21Nov2025
