It was inevitable that Donald Trump’s undiplomatic positions would disrupt the well-oiled mechanics of international summits. France, which currently presides over the G7, often described as the club of rich and democratic countries, is experiencing the painful consequences.
The G7 Summit is taking place this year in Evian from June 15 to 17 under French presidency, and the Elysée announced yesterday that four countries representing different regions of the world – India, South Korea, Brazil, and Kenya, will be associated as “partners”.
Following this announcement, South Africa denounced American pressures that led to the cancellation of an invitation to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. “We are told that the Americans threatened to boycott the G7 summit if South Africa was invited,” said the spokesperson for the South African presidency.
South Africa is the largest economy in Africa, and Cyril Ramaphosa has been a privileged partner of France in various international initiatives, from vaccines during Covid to the Paris Summit on development financing. Despite this, his absence from the G7 Summit in France had its reasons, especially with France organizing a major summit with part of the continent in Kenya in May. The South African president chose to make this matter public, revealing the state of international relations in the Trump era.
President Trump allowed himself to be influenced by extreme right-wing pressure groups claiming a genocide against the Afrikaners, the whites who once introduced apartheid in the country. He also blamed South Africa for leading the case against Israel in the International Court of Justice over its war in Gaza.
Trump aggressively confronted President Ramaphosa during a visit to the White House last May, similar to the ambush of Volodymyr Zelensky. Since then, relations have soured, with Trump boycotting the G20 Summit held in South Africa and excluding the country from this year’s G20 summit in the United States.
This atmosphere is now tarnishing the preparations for the G7 in Evian, which France wanted to be a summit of dialogue for a new international order to overcome the current chaos. Paris was not obligated to exclude South Africa, but clearly did not want to risk a clash with Donald Trump and potentially face a boycott of the summit by the American president.
By inviting Kenya, Paris attempted to bypass the obstacle, but South Africa refused to be humiliated in silence, both at the G7 in Evian and at the American G20 this year. The controversy is now public, with African figures like economist Carlos Lopes already reacting on social media, lamenting the French retreat in the face of Trump’s dictates.
This issue is far from trivial; it symbolizes the imperial nature of the current American presidency and the compromises it obtains through pressure. What kind of world can emerge from a summit that begins with a humiliating edict from a “big” country towards a “smaller” one? South Africa unquestionably belongs in Evian.
