Roll call: The South African government marked the United States absent from the G20 leaders summit. (GCIS)
The South African government has urged the media not to be “obsessed” with the United States’ decision not to attend the G20 Leaders Summit this week, insisting that the focus should be on what will be discussed at the forum.
The US initially indicated it would boycott the summit with neither President Donald Trump nor a senior member of his administration attending, but earlier this week, Pretoria said the US had signalled its desire to now be represented at a junior level.
On Saturday, the South African government said it would mark the US as absent from the summit.
“We will mark them absent, and we have marked them absent. You can see the whole world is here, and that is what we want to focus on. Those who are not present are not present — it is what it is,” the spokesperson for the department of international relations and cooperation, Chrispin Phiri, said.
“I would like to encourage our media not to be obsessed with people who are not in the room and instead focus on what is being discussed in the meeting.”
Phiri confirmed that the US — which will assume the G20 presidency after South Africa — had informed Pretoria of its intention to send a junior official for the handover ceremony. But Phiri said South Africa had made it clear that this would not happen.
“We will not be handing over to a junior official here. It is a matter of process that they will be taking over the presidency, and that can be done at the appropriate level,” Phiri said.
“What is going to happen here is a discussion with all the world leaders who are present, and we need to focus on the discussions taking place here. Those who are not here are not here,” he said.
“We are edging closer to a consensus. A lot of the technical work has been done, and we believe that the world leaders who are here will be able to help us move closer to that consensus.”