Can ‘reliable friend’ China fill the gap as US pressures allies to snub South Africa?
On the same day South Africa is disinvited from the G7 summit following threats from Washington, Beijing offers tariff-free trade
On Thursday, Pretoria said that Ramaphosa’s invitation – issued personally by French President Emmanuel Macron at last year’s Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg – had been withdrawn because the organisers did not want a no-show from the United States.
Presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya told the SABC, the national broadcaster, that Pretoria had been informed that the “Americans threatened to boycott the G7 if South Africa was invited”.
Despite the snub, Magwenya maintained that Pretoria’s relationship with France remained unaffected.
Ramaphosa also downplayed the reports. When asked about the issue on Thursday, he told reporters: “The invitation to the G7 does not mean that you’re being snubbed if you’re not invited or you’re being ignored.”
France denied that South Africa’s exclusion from the summit, to be held in Evian in June, was the result of pressure from Washington, adding that Kenya had been invited instead because Macron was going to visit Nairobi for this year’s Africa-France Summit.