By Kavita Mistry 
South Africa will not be bullied, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Thursday (November 20, 2025) in a jab at the United States, which said it would boycott the G20 summit in Johannesburg this weekend.
Washington has also demanded that South Africa not issue the traditional joint leaders’ statement after the meeting, where around 40 countries will be represented.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has clashed with South Africa over its G20 agenda and various international and domestic policies, is skipping the summit amid a wider U.S. retreat from multilateralism that has rattled global order.
“It cannot be that a country’s geographical location or income or army determines who has a voice and who is spoken down to,” Mr. Ramaphosa told delegates at a curtain-raiser event in a clear reference to Washington.
There “should be no bullying of one nation by another,” he said in an address to a gathering of civil society groups ahead of the November 22-23 summit.
The U.S. embassy confirmed at the weekend it would not attend the summit, saying in a note to South Africa that its G20 priorities “run counter to the U.S. policy views, and we cannot support consensus on any documents negotiated under your presidency.”
It said the United States “opposes issuance of any G20 summit outcome document under the premise of a consensus G20 position, without U.S. agreement.”
South Africa, the first African country to host a G20 summit, replied that the United States’ absence from the event negated its role.