US May Attend G20 Summit Handover Ceremony on Sunday
Foreign Affairs Bureau
– November 21, 2025
3 min read
The United States government will look to send an official to Sunday’s G20 handover ceremony in Johannesburg, signalling a limited engagement with South Africa after confirming it will not attend the full summit.
The ceremony will see South Africa transfer the G20 chairmanship to the United States. Washington had initially considered sending Vice President JD Vance to the summit but withdrew the option roughly ten days ago after President Donald Trump again accused the South African government of persecuting the country’s Afrikaner minority. The Common Sense understands that Marc Dillard, the diplomat who heads the US embassy in Pretoria, may attend the handover ceremony on behalf of Washington. However, at the time of writing this report it was not clear whether the South African government, was prepared to accept Mr Dillard.
The US refusal to attend the main gathering marked a new low in relations that have deteriorated sharply over the past year. Washington has accused Pretoria of threatening its national security interests and has urged South Africa to review its black empowerment and expropriation policies, which it says prejudice American investors. The US has also repeated allegations that the South African government is hostile to the Afrikaner minority, while Pretoria has countered by accusing the US of acting like a colonial oppressor whilst siding with its Chinese, Russian, and Iranian global rivals.
The Common Sense has reported that South African trade negotiators in Washington have foot-dragged in talks with their US counterparts and are hoping the US Supreme Court will overturn several of President Trump’s tariff decisions. Tensions escalated further last week when the Washington warned South Africa not to issue a G20 summit declaration, arguing that its boycott of the summit would prevent the consensus required for such a statement.
The Common Sense understands that South African officials intend to proceed with a declaration and believe they have broad support from attending countries to do this.
Behind the scenes, private diplomatic channels on both sides are working to break the deadlocks and push toward a trade deal and improved diplomatic relationship.
