China’s foreign minister on Thursday defended South Africa’s effort to promote solidarity, equality and sustainability at Group of 20 gatherings this year, even as Secretary of State Marco Rubio boycotted the first high-level meeting in Johannesburg this week because of that focus.
The Group of 20 is an annual gathering of the world’s largest economies. South Africa is the first African nation to host the summit. President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa has pushed the group to adopt policies that ensure the continent’s nations — and developing countries worldwide — are treated as equals.
The theme of this year’s Group of 20 is “solidarity, equality and sustainability.”
Earlier this month, Mr. Rubio accused South Africa of “doing very bad things,” and said the country was using its hosting duties to promote diversity and climate change.
Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, said during a brief interview on the sidelines of the Group of 20 foreign ministers meeting on Thursday that he supported South Africa’s ambitions.
“The very founding of the G20 was aimed at coordinating the macroeconomic policies of different countries,” he said. “Under the current circumstances, it is particularly important to respond to the needs of developing countries.”
Mr. Rubio’s absence on Thursday cast a shadow over the gathering, where much of the small talk among diplomats was focused on how complicated the world had become just weeks into a second Trump administration.
South African officials found themselves in the awkward position of having to talk with restraint about the United States, even though President Trump recently froze all U.S. funding to the country and signed an executive order that attacks South African law.
The executive order accuses the South African government of discriminating against members of the country’s white Afrikaner minority and offers them refugee status to come to the United States.
Speaking at a news conference at the start of the foreign ministers meeting, Mr. Ramaphosa said he believed that he could still work with the United States, his country’s second largest trading partner.
“The secretary of state not attending is, in the end, not a train smash because the United States is still represented here,” he said, referring to the U.S. delegation at the meeting. “We may not agree on everything, but we always find a way of relating to each other.”
