JOHANNESBURG: South Africa said Thursday it has been excluded from the G7 summit in France in June, after initially being invited, with Pretoria first blaming US pressure on Paris before later backtracking.
The spokesperson for the South African presidency told AFP that President Cyril Ramaphosa was no longer invited to the summit due to boycott threats from Washington, reportedly relayed by Paris.
“We are told that the Americans threatened to boycott the G7 if South Africa was invited,” said Vincent Magwenya.
But a few hours later, Ramaphosa said that according to “his information” there had been “no pressure from any country” whether the United States or another.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that his country had “not yielded to any pressure” but had opted for a “streamlined G7,” inviting Kenya instead to help prepare France’s major Africa summit in Nairobi in May.
