Marco Rubio’s shunning of summit comes as SA was expecting to hand over to US in November
09 February 2025 - 15:02
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President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers his 2025 state of the nation address in Cape Town on February 6 2025. Picture: ESA ALEXANDER/REUTERS
The SA government’s policy on land reform has been catapulted into the global limelight since US President Donald Trump’s pledge to cut all funding to SA as the government is “confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY”.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced three days later that he “will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg. SA is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote solidarity, equality & sustainability. In other words, DEI and climate change … My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.”
Rubio’s decision to “NOT” attend the G20 summit would also have considered the SA government’s relationship with China, Russia and Iran, and its position on the war in Ukraine, the case SA brought against Israel at the International Criminal Court a year ago, and SA’s membership of the Brics bloc.
This emphatic message, coming a day before President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address, is a major embarrassment to the president, as SA is chairing the G20 this year and was expecting to hand over to the US in November.
Rubio’s parents were Cuban immigrants, arriving in the US in 1956, before the Castro era. He comes from a conservative Cuban family and would oppose the ANC’s historic ties and foreign policies regarding Cuba and Venezuela.
This will add to his personal views on the SA government and I am sure is a contributing factor to his decision to withdraw from the G20 while it is under the SA presidency.
Policy announcements on Trump’s Truth Social and on Elon Musk’s X have upended formal diplomatic channels, with the duo dictating diplomacy sans diplomacy. Rapid responses denuded of “diplomatic niceties” from government leaders are the new modus operandi.
Government officials and spokespeople all over the world will have to stay up to keep up!
Dr Sharon Horton-Herselman Oudtshoorn
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: G20 humiliation for president
Marco Rubio’s shunning of summit comes as SA was expecting to hand over to US in November
The SA government’s policy on land reform has been catapulted into the global limelight since US President Donald Trump’s pledge to cut all funding to SA as the government is “confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY”.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced three days later that he “will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg. SA is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote solidarity, equality & sustainability. In other words, DEI and climate change … My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.”
Rubio’s decision to “NOT” attend the G20 summit would also have considered the SA government’s relationship with China, Russia and Iran, and its position on the war in Ukraine, the case SA brought against Israel at the International Criminal Court a year ago, and SA’s membership of the Brics bloc.
This emphatic message, coming a day before President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address, is a major embarrassment to the president, as SA is chairing the G20 this year and was expecting to hand over to the US in November.
Rubio’s parents were Cuban immigrants, arriving in the US in 1956, before the Castro era. He comes from a conservative Cuban family and would oppose the ANC’s historic ties and foreign policies regarding Cuba and Venezuela.
This will add to his personal views on the SA government and I am sure is a contributing factor to his decision to withdraw from the G20 while it is under the SA presidency.
Policy announcements on Trump’s Truth Social and on Elon Musk’s X have upended formal diplomatic channels, with the duo dictating diplomacy sans diplomacy. Rapid responses denuded of “diplomatic niceties” from government leaders are the new modus operandi.
Government officials and spokespeople all over the world will have to stay up to keep up!
Dr Sharon Horton-Herselman
Oudtshoorn
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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