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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he will grab the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting of the world’s largest economies in Johannesburg this month over South African efforts to promote “equality, solidarity and sustainability”.
Rubio, the US highest rank diplomat, echoed the anger of US President Donald Trump and his South African adviser Elon Musk on land ownership laws dating back to the Apoch Age.
“I will not attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg,” Rubio said in X: “South Africa is doing very bad things. Private property distribution. Using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality and sustainability’. In other words: dei and climate change.
“My job is to advance America’s national interests, not spend taxpayer money or coding anti-Americanism.”
South Africa is the first country from the continent that holds the G20 rotary leadership, and has done climate justice for the Global Southern countries one of its advantages. SH.BA will take over leadership next year – a surrender that is now likely to be tense.
It is unusual for a country to lose to attend G20 meetings, and US absence comes at a time when China is seeking to further strengthen its ties with Africa. Rubio, a hawk in China, has also criticized South Africa for its latest pressure on Taiwan in accordance with Beijing’s wishes.
South African officials seemed upset by Rubio’s boycott for the meeting. “This is not a South African event. It is a global event,” said Songezo Zibi, an opposition MP. “The Trump administration is essentially prone to the isolation of the United States, weakening its role in international institutions and destroying its gentle power.”
Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said that South African G20 presidency “was not only limited to climate change, but also the right treatment for the southern global nations, providing an equal global system for all.”
Wu Peng, China’s ambassador to South Africa, met with Lamola on Thursday and said closely X that he “expressed China’s willingness to support South African G20 presidency.”
Ziyanda Sturman, an independent Cape Town -based analyst, said the Troika of the previous, current and future armies often had to work through their various advantages, but the attraction of rubio was “a very intense escalation even with it that had a general meaning that the South African relationship is tense. “
She added that the US appeared to “withdraw from the world scene. And nature disgusts a vacuum – there will be either a place or group of countries that go ahead, whether in front of trade or in front of diplomacy.”
On Monday, Trump accused South African authorities of handling “certain classes of people very bad” after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a draft law that allows the land to be captured without compensation in circumstances when it is “right and equal and in public interest ”.
The legislation replaces the laws dating back to the Apoce of Apartheid, during which thousands of non -white families were forcibly removed from their land for the benefit of a white minority. About a quarter of agricultural land today is owned by South Black Africans, who represent 80 percent of the population.
“I will stop all the next funds in South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has completed!” Said Trump on X.
Musk, a close ally of Trump and leader of the “Government Efficiency Department” responded to Ramaphosa’s statement claiming the country had “racist ownership laws”.
It is not clear whether the US will now withdraw from the G20, whose meetings during the year culminate at a Summit in November.
A South African official said no US official had been in touch about US participation.
“The US Secretary of State has not yet spoken to either the President of South Africa or the Minister of Foreign Affairs,” the official said. “He probably does not have a significant level of understanding what he is talking about. (If) he is withdrawing from a major international event without consulting with other G20 members.”
