WASHINGTON, 8 November (H.S.): The United States will boycott this year's Group of 20 (G20) summit in South Africa, with President Donald Trump citing the alleged persecution of minority white farmers as the reason for the withdrawal of all U.S. government officials. The move escalates a long-simmering dispute between the two nations over South Africa's land reform policies and what the Trump administration has characterized as human rights abuses.
In a social media post on Friday, President Trump declared it a total disgrace for the G20 to be held in South Africa, accusing the country of allowing violence against and the illegal confiscation of land from Afrikaners, the descendants of Dutch and other European settlers.
Although Trump had previously announced he would not personally attend the summit, Vice President JD Vance was scheduled to go in his place; he will now no longer travel to Johannesburg for the event.The South African government has consistently and vehemently denied the allegations of discrimination and persecution, with President Cyril Ramaphosa calling the claims completely false.
The South African government has pointed out that, on average, white South Africans continue to have a significantly higher standard of living than their Black counterparts, more than three decades after the end of apartheid.The U.S. boycott marks a new low in the increasingly fraught relationship between the two countries. The Trump administration has been a vocal critic of South Africa's land expropriation laws, which are intended to address historical racial imbalances in land ownership.
Earlier this year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also boycotted a G20 meeting of foreign ministers over its focus on diversity and climate change, signaling the administration's broader discontent with the G20's agenda under South Africa's presidency.
President Trump has also publicly questioned South Africa's membership in the G20, suggesting the country should be expelled from the group of leading and emerging economies.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
