Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo will not be attending the G20 leaders summit, joining Argentina in sending a senior cabinet minister to lead that country’s delegation.
Ambassador Xolisa Mabhongo confirmed to the Sunday Times that at least four heads of state, including US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, will not be attending the summit on November 22-23.
Despite this, South Africa has maintained that this is not a diplomatic disaster, downplaying Trump’s non-attendance.
The G20 comprises 19 countries ― Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkiye, the UK and the US, as well as the EU and AU.
Putin’s non-attendance came as no surprise following the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) issue of a warrant for his arrest.
In 2023, the ICC issued a warrant of arrest for Putin for crimes related to Russia’s war against Ukraine, placing South Africa — a signatory of the Rome Statute — in a precarious position with its ally in the lead up to the Brics leaders summit.
The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the ICC and was adopted at a diplomatic conference in 1998 before coming into force in July 2002.
Mabhongo said Putin would be represented by foreign affairs minister Sergey Lavrov, who is familiar with South Africa, having attended several summits in the country.
The news of Pardo’s absence comes after Argentina’s media reported that its president, Javier Milei, a right-wing leader who is allied to Trump, would not be attending the leaders’ summit.
Milei’s foreign minister Pablo Quirino will lead the Argentinian delegation.
This came after Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he would not be sending any government delegation to South Africa.
Trump has been peddling misinformation against Pretoria, making false claims of a white genocide.
Trump posted that it was “a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa”.
“Afrikaners are being killed and slaughtered and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated. No US government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses continue,” Trump said.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio echoed the sentiment on X, claiming: “Afrikaners have been continuously subjected to violent racial discrimination by the South African government. I applaud [Donald Trump’s] decision to not waste taxpayer dollars sending our diplomats to the G20 while this heinous violence continues.”
The Sunday Times understands that the news of the US delegation and Milei’s non-attendance took Pretoria by surprise. Mexico and Russia’s heads of state had, however, registered their non-attendance.
The South African government is said to have been in contact with the US vice president, JD Vance, coordinating their travels and participation in the summit as part of the G20 Troika, which includes Brazil. The US will take over from South Africa in chairing the G20 summit next year.
Vance was initially announced by Trump as his replacement to lead the country’s delegation.
“Normally on summits the heads of state don’t do apologies, so the invitation is sent out to all of them and then each head of state decides whether they are coming or not, it’s their sovereign decision,” Mabhongo said.
He downplayed Melie’s nonattendance, arguing that President Cyril Ramaphosa has also failed to attend some summits, sending a cabinet minister in his stead.
“Other countries which will be represented at a ministerial level are the Russian Federation and Mexico. So those countries will be represented at a ministerial level. The rest of the G20 members are coming as heads of state at a government level,” he said.
Mabhongo said the attendance register was “very good”, claiming that South Africa would host a “successful and beautiful” leaders summit.
“In addition, there is another category called the invited countries that is again a number of countries from the African continent, Asia and South America. Most of those countries are coming as heads of state,” he said.
Pretoria earlier released a statement following Trump’s social media post.
“The South African government wishes to state, for the record, that the characterisation of Afrikaners as an exclusively white group is ahistorical. Furthermore, the claim that this community faces persecution is not substantiated by fact.
“Against this backdrop, South Africa’s focus remains on its positive global contributions. Drawing on our own journey from racial and ethnic division to democracy, our nation is uniquely positioned to champion within the G20 a future of genuine solidarity, where shared prosperity bridges deep inequalities. We look forward to hosting a successful G20 leaders summit.”
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