No bullying, Ramaphosa says as U.S. snubs South Africas G20

South Africa is not going to be bullied, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated Thursday (November 20, 2025) in a jab on the United States, which stated it might boycott the G20 summit in Johannesburg this weekend.

Washington has additionally demanded that South Africa not subject the normal joint leaders’ assertion after the assembly, the place round 40 international locations will probably be represented.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has clashed with South Africa over its G20 agenda and varied worldwide and home insurance policies, is skipping the summit amid a wider U.S. retreat from multilateralism that has rattled world order.

“It can’t be {that a} nation’s geographical location or revenue or military determines who has a voice and who’s spoken right down to,” Mr. Ramaphosa informed delegates at a curtain-raiser occasion in a transparent reference to Washington.

There “needs to be no bullying of 1 nation by one other,” he stated in an deal with to a gathering of civil society teams forward of the November 22-23 summit.

The U.S. embassy confirmed on the weekend it might not attend the summit, saying in a notice to South Africa that its G20 priorities “run counter to the U.S. coverage views, and we can not help consensus on any paperwork negotiated beneath your presidency.”

It stated the United States “opposes issuance of any G20 summit final result doc beneath the premise of a consensus G20 place, with out U.S. settlement.”

South Africa, the primary African nation to host a G20 summit, replied that the United States’ absence from the occasion negated its position.