November 21, 2025

How the U.S. and South Africa Could Use the G20 to Plot a Path Forward

By: Richard Fontaine and Gibbs McKinley

This article was originally published in the Daily Maverick.

The Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Johannesburg will be a historic gathering. The first time an African country holds the group presidency, the summit takes place during a period of significant strain on multilateral institutions.

It also coincides with the lowest point in the US-South Africa relationship since 1994. US President Donald Trump — along with all other US senior government officials — are likely skipping the meeting. It will mark the only instance of a sitting US president failing to attend since the summit format began in 2008.

In the contest for the future of global order, South Africa’s choices will have a disproportionate impact on the outcome.

Trump’s absence speaks volumes about the poor state of relations between the United States and South Africa. Deep and genuine differences have emerged between the two countries in recent years, and ties have worsened amid Trump’s claims of “white genocide”. Improving the bilateral situation will be difficult, but both sides have good reasons to try.

For Washington, South Africa is one of a small handful of “global swing states” – multialigned countries that play a dominant role in their regions and whose actions have global resonance. Like other global swing states, including Brazil, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, South Africa maintains simultaneous ties with the United States, Russia and China and declines to side fully with just one of the great powers.

Read the full article on the Daily Maverick.

More from CNAS

View All Reports View All Articles & Multimedia