by Michelle Gumede
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will skip a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the leading rich and developing nations that starts on Thursday after criticizing host South Africa’s policies as anti-American.
Instead, Rubio was headed back to the United States on Wednesday from his first trip to the Middle East as America’s chief diplomat, and after leading a U.S. delegation in talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia over the war in Ukraine.
Rubio spoke with the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the European Union’s foreign policy chief to brief them immediately after Tuesday’s meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the State Department said.
Top European diplomats, as well as Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are all expected at the Group of 20 meeting in Johannesburg while the U.S. will be represented by a lower-level delegation.
A G20 meeting would normally be an opportunity for a U.S. secretary of state to push for support on U.S. positions, especially at the start of a new administration.
Analysts say Rubio’s absence reflects the Trump administration’s indifference to organizations promoting international cooperation, but Rubio has also directly rejected South Africa’s priorities for its G20 presidency. The hosts have picked “solidarity, equality, sustainability” as the theme of the G20 this year.
South Africa, the first African nation to hold the group’s presidency, says it will try to advance the interests of poor countries, especially with debt refinancing and helping them mitigate the impacts of climate change, where the developing world is asking rich countries to pay more.
Rubio posted on X this month that he would also not attend the main G20 summit in Johannesburg in November, saying South Africa was using the gathering to promote diversity, equality and inclusion frameworks, “In other words: DEI and climate change.”
“My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism,” Rubio wrote.
Rubio’s decision to skip the G20 meeting also underscores a major deterioration in U.S. relations with South Africa, one of its key trade partners in Africa.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month stopping U.S. aid and assistance to South Africa over a land law that he says discriminates against some of the country’s white minority. The order also called South Africa’s foreign policy anti-American and criticized its ongoing case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza at the United Nations’ top court, and what it said was the country’s closeness to the Communist Party in China.
South Africa is due to hand over the presidency of the G20 to the U.S. at the end of this year, and the two countries are expected to work together under G20 protocols.
South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said on Wednesday that the U.S. would be represented in Johannesburg this week “in one form or shape or another” and stressed that Rubio’s decision was “not a complete boycott of South Africa’s G20” by the U.S.
Analysts in Africa say they still see a way for the G20 to make progress under South Africa’s presidency, even with limited U.S. interest. The EU, Russia and China have expressed support for South Africa’s G20 leadership.
“No one wants to be on the wrong side of the United States,” said Oscar van Heerden, senior researcher at the University of Johannesburg’s Centre of African Diplomacy and Leadership. “But I think everyone also realizes that what drives the foreign policy of the United States is not necessarily what drives the foreign policy of the European Union or the other members of the G20.”
European allies have their own concerns over future cooperation with the Trump administration after they were sidelined by its move to hold bilateral talks this week with Russia.
“Multilateralism is under threat right now,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in South Africa, “We also need to use this opportunity to develop the international system further to be more inclusive for all countries in the world.”
