French ambassador calls for South Africa to be at G20 after Trump bars country

JOHANNESBURG: (Apr 22 ) The French ambassador to Johannesburg said Tuesday that South Africa should be allowed to attend the Group of 20 summit this year in the United States despite US President Donald Trump’s move to bar the country from the meeting.

Trump said last year he would not invite South Africa — a full G20 member — to the summit that the US will host in Florida in December, following diplomatic tensions between the two. South African officials have said they have also been locked out of G20 meetings that traditionally happen throughout the year ahead of a summit.

The Trump administration has criticized South Africa’s Black-led government as being anti-white and anti-American, while the Republican president has made baseless claims that there is a widespread campaign of violence against the country’s white minority farmers.