Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.nation.com.pk
China extended support to South Africa on Friday to continue participating in G20 meetings as the US prepared to host top diplomats of the world’s 20 largest economies.
“The G20 plays an important role in strengthening multilateralism, promoting world economic growth and improving global governance,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters in Beijing.
“It is a major platform for international economic cooperation (and) South Africa is an important member of the G20. China supports South Africa in continuing its participation in G20-related activities,” Guo said.
He was responding to questions about the reported exclusion of South Africa from the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting, which begins Friday in the Atlanta city of the US state of Georgia.
Earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had supported South Africa’s participation in the meeting.
In November 2025, US President Donald Trump said South Africa would not be invited to the G20 summit to be held in November 2026 in Miami, Florida.
Trump had skipped the leaders’ summit of the G20 hosted by South Africa in Johannesburg in 2025.
On Monday, Roelf Meyer, South Africa’s ambassador to the US, said the South African government “is no longer troubled” about not being invited to the G20 summit in Miami.
South Africa has “moved on and was already talking” to next year’s G20 host, the UK, Meyer said, according to the Daily Maverick news outlet.
Meyer said, however, that South Africa would attend the B20 summit in Washington, DC, next month.
