Merz urges Trump to invite SA to G20 summit in Miami

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged US President Donald Trump to reconsider his decision not to invite South Africa to the Group of 20 in Miami in December.

“Africa belongs at the table,” Merz said at the Berlin Global Dialogue conference Wednesday. “The African Union is a member of the G-20, and so is South Africa,” he added. “That’s why I urge that South Africa be represented at the G-20 summit.”

Trump announced last year that South Africa, a G-20 member state, would not be invited to the summit this year. The US president justified his decision with a repeated claim that South Africa was committing genocide against white people in the country. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office forcefully rejected the accusation as “misinformation and distortions about our country.”

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Trump has in contrast invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the G-20, a move which has been widely been criticized by other member states. Putin plans to travel to China to an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month, but is likely to skip the G-20, Bloomberg News reported last month.

The Trump administration has significantly reduced the number of refugees coming into the US, but has prioritized white South Africans, a sharp break in the nation’s past policy of accepting tens of thousands fleeing conflict and persecution.

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