By Andrea Shalal and Costas Pitas
WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) – The U.S. on Monday assumed the 12-month presidency of the Group of 20 major economies amid a bitter feud with outgoing president South Africa, and Washington said it will focus its agenda on promoting economic growth and prosperity.
The U.S. State Department issued a statement on Monday outlining its priorities for its presidency, vowing to undertake “much-needed reforms” and “return the G20 to focus on its core mission of driving economic growth and prosperity to produce results.”
“We will prioritize three core themes: unleashing economic prosperity by limiting regulatory burdens, unlocking affordable and secure energy supply chains, and pioneering new technologies and innovations,” it said in a statement.
Next year’s summit will take place in Miami at a golf resort owned by U.S. President Donald Trump, who last week said that he would not invite South Africa. Washington skipped this year’s gathering hosted by Pretoria and accused South Africa of weaponizing its leadership of the group.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday dismissed Trump’s threat, saying his country remained a “full, active and constructive” member of the G20, and rejected as “blatant misinformation” Trump’s repeated claims that South Africa is committing “genocide against Afrikaners” – descendants of Dutch settlers – and confiscating land from white citizens.
Washington boycotted this year’s G20 leaders’ summit from November 22-23 at Trump’s direction, following his repeated allegations, widely discredited, that the host country’s Black-majority government persecutes its white minority.
G20 leaders at the summit, defying Washington’s objections, issued a declaration addressing the climate crisis and other global challenges on November 22.
Trump said last Wednesday that South Africa would not be invited to the summit next year because it had refused to hand over the G20 presidency to a senior representative of its embassy who was at the closing ceremony. Pretoria says it handed over the rotating presidency to a U.S. embassy official.
Trump’s plans to exclude South Africa are dividing G20 members, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz telling reporters that he would try to persuade Trump to reverse his decision.
(Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Susan Heavey and David Gregorio)
