Rubio to Miss G20 Summit Over South Africa’s Equality Agenda
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he would not appear at the upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg, citing concerns about South Africa’s equality policy, including its approach to leveraging private property. Rubio criticized the country for using the G20 presidential term to promote “unity, equality and sustainability” and opposed its land reform, echoing President Trump’s recent criticism of land policy. In response, the South African Foreign Ministry defended the expropriation legislation, which it claimed was comparable to the laws in the famous spheres of the rest of the world. It also reaffirms Pretoria’s commitment to addressing global inequality, especially for countries in the global southern countries. The move has the potential to further intensify U.S.-South Africa relations, with some U.S. lawmakers questioning trade relations between the two countries as Pretoria’s growing ties with China and refusing to condemn Russian invasion of Ukraine.
source: Bloomberg
