South Africa criticized US President Donald Trump after he said he is barring the nation from participating in the G20 summit next year at his Miami-area club, and would stop payments and subsidies to the country over its treatment of a US government representative at this year’s meeting.
“South Africa is a sovereign constitutional democratic country, and does not appreciate insults from another country about its membership and worth in participating in global platforms,” the South African presidency said late on Wednesday, vowing to continue participating in all G20 meetings.
The two countries are at odds over a range of domestic and foreign policies — a standoff that came to a head after Washington skipped the G20 summit in Johannesburg last week.
Photo: AP
Trump said that South Africa would not be invited to next year’s meeting.
Pretoria said that South Africa is a G20 member in its own right and that its place in the bloc was decided by the other members.
Trump had cited what he described as “horrific Human Right Abuses” endured by white farmers, and South Africa’s refusal to symbolically hand off the G20 presidency at the end of the Johannesburg summit to the US.
“South Africa has demonstrated to the World they are not a country worthy of Membership anywhere and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately,” Trump wrote on Wednesday.
South Africa on Tuesday handed over the G20 presidency at a low-key foreign ministry event after refusing to do so at the summit to a US embassy representative, saying that Washington should be represented “at the right level.”
“It is regrettable that despite the efforts and numerous attempts by [South African] President [Cyril] Ramaphosa and his administration to reset the diplomatic relationship with the US, President Trump continues to apply punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country,” Pretoria said.
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