Key US politician snubs South Africa

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent won’t travel to the Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in South Africa next week as he focuses on the domestic agenda in his first weeks in office.

Bessent’s decision follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s snub of the G-20 gathering of foreign ministers this week. Rubio cited issues with South Africa’s land and equality policies as his reasons for not going.

A local US diplomat in South Africa was delegated to attend the foreign ministers’ meeting.

“I will not attend the G20 Summit because of obligations in Washington DC.,” Bessent said in a post on X Wednesday night.

“A Senior Treasury Official will attend in my place. I am in regular contact with my global counterparts who are working to advance President Trump’s agenda.”

While the rationale for Bessent skipping the G-20 may be different, his no-show risks being taken as a further disengagement by the Trump administration in multilateral forums.

By contrast, previous newly installed Treasury chiefs have headed to confabs with counterparts early in their tenures, such as Republican Paul O’Neill’s attendance at a G-7 meeting in Palermo, Italy, in mid-February 2001.

Bessent’s immediate predecessor, Janet Yellen, participated in virtual G-7 and G-20 meetings in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic in February 2021.

Bessent has been in office less than a month and is one of President Donald Trump’s key lieutenants in the legislative battle to push through a major tax-cut package in the coming months. 

The New York Times previously reported Bessent’s plan to skip the G-20 meeting. In Bessent’s case, next week’s G-20 would have been his first chance to meet with counterparts from across the world following his assumption of the Treasury’s helm last month.

G-20 legacy

Nearly three decades old, the G-20 was formed in the wake of the Asian financial crisis to bring the world’s most advanced economies together with the biggest emerging markets.

Over time, it proved an influential forum for establishing and propagating norms across the global financial system, such as a general commitment to move toward freer markets.

The group’s pledge to avoid protectionist moves during the global financial crisis was one of its high-water marks.

While the G-20’s cohesion has eroded in recent years, as members split over how to respond to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a member of the group, the forum has still served as an opportunity for leaders of the world’s top economies to gather on a regular basis.

Yellen was a key participant in G-20 gatherings, often attending them twice or more each year — part of her broader advocacy for greater US multilateral engagement.

Relations between the US and South Africa, which serves as the rotating G-20 chair this year, have sharply deteriorated since Trump blasted Pretoria’s newly approved land expropriation laws.

The president froze all US aid to South Africa over what he falsely claimed were rights violations stemming from that legislation, as well as over its allegations of genocide against Israel.

Bessent will have another opportunity to gather with a group of his counterparts in April, when the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are scheduled to be held in Washington.