Washington DC [US], December 4 (ANI): The United States on Thursday announced plans for a reconfigured “New G20” as it prepares to host the 2026 G20 Leaders’ Summit in Miami, Florida, welcoming Poland as a new participant while explicitly excluding South Africa. The announcement came in a blog post by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio titled “America Welcomes a New G20.” The US will host the G20 for the first time since 2009, and the 2026 summit will coincide with America’s 250th anniversary.
Rubio said the New G20 will concentrate on three core themes—removing regulatory burdens, unlocking affordable and secure energy supply chains, and pioneering technologies such as artificial intelligence—organized through four working groups. He wrote that under President Trump’s leadership the working groups will aim to address regulatory barriers, energy security, and technological innovation, noting that the global economy is being reshaped by technologies like AI and needs a focus beyond “ideological preoccupations around green energy.”
The first Sherpa and Finance Track meetings are scheduled for December 15 and 16 in Washington, with additional sessions planned through the year. The US also plans to invite “friends, neighbours, and partners,” singling out Poland as a post-Cold War success story and an example of how partnership with the United States and American businesses can drive mutual prosperity.
The most notable change is the exclusion of South Africa. Rubio criticized South Africa’s current government and its G20 presidency, saying the country squandered post-apartheid potential through “redistributionist policies that discouraged investment” and racial quotas that have harmed the private sector. He praised Nelson Mandela’s vision of reconciliation and market-driven growth but said subsequent leadership replaced reconciliation with policies that drove talent abroad, fostered corruption, and left the economy stagnating. Rubio said South Africa now “falls firmly outside the group of the 20 largest industrialised economies.”
Rubio accused the African National Congress (ANC)-led government of scapegoating citizens and the US, tolerating violence against Afrikaner farmers, aligning with adversaries like Iran and supporters of Hamas, and using its G20 presidency to prioritize issues such as climate change, diversity and inclusion, and aid dependency while ignoring US input. He alleged the presidency had blocked negotiations and even “doxxed” American officials. For these reasons, Rubio wrote, the US will not invite the South African government to participate in the G20 during its presidency, though he said there is a path back if South Africa makes “the tough decisions needed to fix its broken system.”
This follows earlier comments by former President Trump and the current administration, which also criticized South Africa’s human rights record and said the US skipped the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg. Trump posted that the US did not attend because, he alleged, the South African government refused to address human rights abuses against Afrikaners and other descendants of European settlers, adding that farms were being taken and whites killed—claims that have been widely contested.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa described the US decision as regrettable and said his administration had sought to reset diplomatic relations, accusing the US of punitive measures based on misinformation and distortions. The Tribune report notes the content was sourced from a syndicated feed (ANI) and published as received.
