A dilemma whether to go to Johannesburg in South Africa to attend the G20 summit in South Africa later this month or skip it after US President Donald Trump’s decision to boycott is reportedly haunting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as both options are high risk prone to India and its leadership.
Modi declined to go to participate in Gaza Ceasefire summit three weeks back and then did not attend the 47th ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 27-28 October personally and chose to address it virtually ostensibly to avoid meeting his friend Trump face to face. Now comes an opportunity for the Prime Minister to revel in international diplomacy in South Africa but he will have to face the wrath of the US President who has said that it is a “toral disgrace” that the G20 summit is being held in South Africa.
Modi’s dilemma needs to be seen and understood in the background of Trump nursing grievances and sparing leaders who defy him. The Prime Minister’s silence and refusal to utter a single word against the US President despite Trump’s repeated insults of both India as well as Modi.
US President Donald Trump said it is a “total disgrace” that the G20 will be held in South Africa later this month, announcing that no American official will attend the Summit as long as “human rights abuses” against the ethnic minority group of Afrikaners continue in the country.
Earlier this week, Trump had announced that he would not be attending the G20 Summit in South Africa, as he questioned the country’s membership in the grouping of major economies.
“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa. Afrikaners (People who are descended from Dutch settlers, and also French and German immigrants) are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. “No US Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue. I look forward to hosting the 2026 G20 in Miami, Florida!” he added.
In February this year, just weeks after being sworn in as US President for a second term, Trump issued an order condemning South Africa’s “shocking disregard” of its citizens’ rights by enacting legislation that enabled the South African government to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.
In the wake of this, Trump had said that the US shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa and shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.
In his remarks at a business forum in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday, Trump said, “I am not going. We have a G20 meeting in South Africa. South Africa shouldn’t even be in the Gs anymore because what’s happened there is bad. I’m not going. I told them I’m not going. I’m not going to represent our country there. It shouldn’t be there.” South Africa assumed the year-long G20 Presidency on December 1, 2024, and will host the grouping’s leaders for a Summit meeting in Johannesburg from November 22 to 23, the first time that the G20 Summit will be held on African soil. The US will take over the Presidency of the G20 from South Africa and head the grouping from December 1, 2025, through November 30, 2026. Trump has previously said that he will host the G20 leaders for the 2026 summit at his golf club near Miami.
India was the President of the G20 from December 2022 to November 2023 and hosted the 18th G20 Summit in New Delhi in September 2023. Then-US President Joe Biden had travelled to India to attend the Summit.
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 United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union and the African Union.
It was under India’s G20 Presidency that the African Union officially joined the grouping of the world’s major economies as a permanent member.
In his remarks on Wednesday, Trump said that Miami has for generations been a haven for those fleeing communist tyranny in South Africa.
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“I mean, if you take a look at what’s going on in parts of South Africa, look at South Africa. What’s going on. Look at South America. What’s going on….Take a look at what’s happening in different parts of South America. Take a look at what’s happening in different parts of the world.”
Earlier Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took a sarcastic jab at Modi, hoping that he will attend the G20 summit in South Africa after US President Donald Trump’s reported boycott.
“Now that President Trump has announced he will not be attending the G20 Summit in South Africa, we can be certain that the self-styled Vishwaguru will himself attend in person,” Ramesh said in a post on handle X on Saturday.
The G20 summit, a key global forum for addressing economic and geopolitical challenges, is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg on November 22-23. Modi’s attendance has been under scrutiny, especially after he reportedly skipped a regional leaders’ summit in Malaysia to avoid a possible meeting with Trump.
The development reflects the complex diplomatic dynamics between India and the US, with strained relations over issues like trade tariffs and India’s purchase of Russian oil. The global community will be watching closely as the summit approaches.
