(MENAFN) South Africa’s stance on the Group of 20 (G20) summit is firm, with the United States’ absence reportedly nullifying its influence over the forum’s decisions, according to Chrispin Phiri, spokesperson for South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation. Phiri emphasized that Pretoria will not be intimidated.

Speaking Wednesday, Phiri responded to Washington’s announcement that it would skip the G20 Leaders’ Summit set for Saturday and Sunday, alongside its refusal to endorse any summit outcome document presented as a G20 consensus without U.S. approval.

Earlier, South African G20 Sous-Sherpa Xolisa Mabhongo confirmed that the United States sent a letter indicating it would only accept a "chair's statement" that acknowledges a lack of consensus.

"We cannot allow coercion by absentia to become a viable tactic," Phiri said. "It is a recipe for institutional paralysis and the breakdown of collective action."

South Africa took over the rotating G20 presidency on Dec. 1, 2024, marking the first time an African nation has held the role. The United States is slated to assume the presidency on Dec. 1 next year.

Relations between Pretoria and Washington have been tense since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in late January. In February, Trump signed an executive order freezing U.S. aid to South Africa, claiming the country’s Expropriation Act, a land reform law signed by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in January, "discriminates" against white citizens.

The South African government dismissed the allegations, saying they lack "factual accuracy and fails to recognize South Africa's profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid."

In February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on social media he would boycott the G20 summit in Johannesburg, citing "bad things" happening in the country.

Tensions escalated further in March when Washington expelled then South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool after he publicly criticized Trump.

In May, Trump confronted President Ramaphosa at the White House with claims of "white genocide" in South Africa, which Ramaphosa firmly denied. During the meeting, Ramaphosa rejected the notion that white South Africans are fleeing the country due to discriminatory policies, noting that the majority of crime victims in South Africa are Black.

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