Trump’s G20 snub lets South Africa push global climate, debt agenda

People walk in front a G20 banner, as the country prepares to host the G20 Summit on November 22-23, in Johannesburg, South Africa, November 18, 2025.

Photo credit: Reuters

An empty chair for Donald Trump at the G20 summit offers an opportunity for South African hosts, determined to set an agenda for global leaders in the face of the US president's hostility to multilateral diplomacy.

Washington says it won't attend the first G20 summit in Africa, because of allegations that the host country, previously ruled by its white minority under an explicitly racist apartheid system until 1994, now mistreats white people.