The White House announced on November 26, 2025: South Africa will not receive an invitation to the G20 Summit in Miami, USA in 2026.
The incident was triggered on November 23 - the day the G20 Summit ended. According to tradition, the host country should formally transfer the symbol of the hosting country's authority, a gavel, to the representative of the next rotating host country at the closing ceremony. However, the United States did not send a high-level official to attend the event, but only planned to have the acting ambassador of the U.S. embassy in South Africa attend the handover ceremony.
South Africa refused to accept this arrangement, and the reason was clear: as one of the most important economic cooperation forums in the world, the power transfer of the G20 should be carried out by officials at least at the cabinet level, not by low-level diplomatic personnel.
As a result, the handover ceremony that was originally to be conducted publicly at the summit site was canceled. In the end, this symbolic transfer of power was "quietly completed" on November 25 in the office building of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa, and even the names of the participating officials were not disclosed to the public.
In response, the White House reacted quickly and firmly, immediately stating that South Africa would not be invited to participate in the 2026 Miami G20 Summit. It is worth noting that although G20 membership is not automatically renewed, there has never been a precedent in history where a host country unilaterally excluded an official member state from participation. This move essentially exercises the "selective invitation right" as the host country, directly transforming emotions into punishment.
Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1849994482218243/
Statement: The article represents the personal views of the author.