By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Russia has challenged the United States over its decision to exclude South Africa from the G20 summit, arguing that Washington does not have the authority to unilaterally prevent an existing member from participating in the international forum.
The Group of 20 comprises 19 leading economies plus the European Union – and, now, the African Union. Countries within the group meet throughout the year, but an annual summit is also held, hosted by the country holding the presidency of the group.
In 1999, the group was formed by 19 countries and the European Union as a forum to discuss global economic issues following the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Its other members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, as well as the African Union, which joined as the 21st member at the 2023 summit in India.
Other countries are also often invited to the summit; in total, 42 attended this year. Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki said in September that Trump had already invited him to next year’s meeting.
Until now, no member state has ever been barred from the summit.
However, in 2022, then-US President Joe Biden said Russia should be banned from the G20 due to its invasion of Ukraine, but that did not happen.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is subject to an arrest warrant by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the war in Ukraine, dispatched his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to attend instead.
Lavrov addressed the United Nations (UN) and indicated that, he raised the matter personally with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, insisting the G20 Presidency did not give Washington the power to decide which member states can participate.
He has argued that South Africa’s status as a full G20 member is “indisputable” and that Pretoria should return to the grouping’s work.
The Kremlin’s position also reflects Moscow’s broader effort to strengthen ties with South Africa and other Global South powers while challenging what it sees as unilateral Western influence over international institutions.
Lavrov has also indicated that Moscow would raise the matter through BRICS, the grouping that includes South Africa and Russia, as well as within the G20 itself.
South Africa hosted the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November 2025, becoming the first African country to hold the grouping’s rotating presidency.
US president Donald Trump boycotted the summit and accused South Africa of failing to protect white Afrikaners.
The US absence also created a dispute over ceremonial transfer of the G20 presidency. Washington wanted the handover to be made to a US embassy official, but Pretoria rejected the arrangement, arguing that the transfer should follow proper diplomatic protocol.
Trump subsequently announced that South Africa would be barred from the following year’s summit, deepening an already strained relationship.
The United States is scheduled to host the 2026 G20 leaders’ summit in Miami in December.
The US is South Africa’s second-largest single-country trading partner after China. In 2024, total goods and services trade between the two countries reached an estimated $26.2bn, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.