On Thursday, a White House official said an envoy would attend a ceremony for the official handover of the G20 presidency from South Africa to the US but there was no question of Washington participating.
“This is fake news. The chargé d’affaires in Pretoria will attend the handover ceremony as a formality, but the United States is not joining G20 discussions,” they added.
But South African presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said “the president will not hand over to a chargé d’affaires.”
Trump has rejected South Africa’s agenda for the Nov 22-23 summit of promoting solidarity and helping developing nations adapt to worse weather disasters, transition to clean energy and cut their excessive debt costs.
Ramaphosa said last week of the handover of the G20 presidency to the United States: “I don’t want to hand over to an empty chair, but the empty chair will be there.”
Source: CNA
