The Russian Embassy in South Africa said Ambassador-at-Large Marat Berdyev had stressed that the G20 is a “collegial format” that cannot be unilaterally controlled by one member.
“Russia is working with partners to ensure Pretoria takes its rightful place at the negotiating table ASAP,” the embassy said in a post on X on August 30.
The intervention comes roughly nine months after US President Donald Trump announced that South Africa would not be invited to the 2026 G20 summit, scheduled to take place in Miami in December.
From G20 boycott to diplomatic fallout
The dispute between Washington and Pretoria had already escalated significantly before Trump announced the exclusion.
South Africa hosted the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November 2025, becoming the first African country to hold the grouping’s rotating presidency. Trump boycotted the summit and accused South Africa of failing to protect white Afrikaners, claims Pretoria rejected as misinformation.
The US absence also created a dispute over the ceremonial transfer of the G20 presidency. Washington wanted the handover to be made to a US embassy official, but Pretoria rejected the arrangement, arguing that the transfer should follow proper diplomatic protocol.
Trump subsequently announced that South Africa would be barred from the following year’s summit, deepening an already strained relationship.
The disagreement is part of a much wider confrontation between Trump and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government.
In February 2025, Trump suspended US aid to South Africa, citing Pretoria’s land-expropriation law and alleging that it discriminated against white Afrikaners.
The administration also launched a programme to resettle white South Africans as refugees in the US — a move Pretoria described as politically motivated.
The dispute escalated further when Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared South Africa’s ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, persona non grata in March 2025 after accusing him of hostility toward the Trump administration.
Trump and Ramaphosa then had a tense White House meeting in May, during which Trump again presented claims of attacks and land seizures targeting white farmers. Ramaphosa rejected the allegations and challenged the US president over the evidence supporting them.
Washington also imposed a 30% tariff on South African imports, adding an economic dimension to the diplomatic dispute.
At the centre of Trump’s criticism has been Pretoria’s domestic land policy, but the disagreement also reflects a broader clash over South Africa’s foreign policy.
Pretoria has maintained close relations with Russia and China, remains a leading BRICS member and has taken a strongly pro-Palestinian position in the Gaza war.
South Africa also brought a genocide case against Israel at the ICJ, placing it on the opposite side of several major foreign-policy positions held by the Trump administration.
Russia sees an opening
Moscow’s latest intervention gives Pretoria an unlikely but powerful diplomatic ally as its relationship with Washington deteriorates.
Russia has argued that South Africa’s status as a full G20 member is “indisputable” and that Pretoria should return to the grouping’s work.
The Kremlin’s position also reflects Moscow’s broader effort to strengthen ties with South Africa and other Global South powers while challenging what it sees as unilateral Western influence over international institutions.
The G20 itself is made up of major economies that collectively account for the bulk of global economic output, trade and population.
South Africa remains a member of the grouping; the dispute is over its exclusion from the 2026 summit and participation in the US-led process, rather than formal expulsion from the G20.
