"Can't skip just because Trump doesn't allow it" Lula strongly supports South Africa's president attending the G20 summit

According to Agence France-Presse, Brazilian President Lula publicly expressed support for South African President Ramaphosa to attend the 2026 Group of Twenty (G20) Summit on the 20th and condemned remarks by U.S. President Trump earlier that South Africa would not be invited to attend. Lula said, “We can’t not go just because Trump won’t let us.” Lula visited Germany from the 19th to the 20th. On the 20th, at a press conference jointly held with German Chancellor Scholz, Lula said that South Africa is a founding member country of the G20, and the U.S. has no right to unilaterally bar its participation. Lula said he had communicated with Ramaphosa, indicating that he should attend the G20 Summit and that he “should attend in the capacity of a founding member country of the G20, rather than as a guest.” Since 2025, relations between the United States and South Africa have remained tense. Citing South Africa’s government land policies as constituting racial discrimination against white South Africans, the U.S. cut off aid to South Africa, later expelled the South African ambassador, and was absent from the G20 Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November 2025. On November 26, 2025, Trump posted on social media that South Africa will not be invited to the 2026 G20 Summit in Miami, USA.( Xinhua News Agency )