By Kavita Mistry 
G20 Summit 2025, PM Narendra Modi South Africa Visit Live Updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a warm and colourful welcome on Friday as he arrived in South Africa for the G20 Leaders’ Summit. A cultural group performed at the airport, and its members bowed to him as a gesture of respect.
This is PM Modi’s fourth official visit to South Africa. He previously visited the country for the BRICS summits in 2018 and 2023, and before that for a bilateral visit in 2016.
This year’s G20 is also notable because it marks the fourth consecutive summit hosted in the Global South, following Indonesia, India and Brazil. South Africa has taken over the presidency for 2025, after Brazil (2024), India (2023) and Indonesia (2022).
On Friday, PM Modi also held a bilateral meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The two leaders discussed key areas of cooperation and ongoing developments between their countries.
G20 leaders are assembling in Johannesburg this weekend, but the United States will not be represented after former President Donald Trump declared he would boycott the summit. He made the announcement while repeating his controversial — and widely challenged — claims that South Africa is discriminating against its white Afrikaner population.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will also be absent, continuing his pattern of significantly limiting international travel in recent years.