South Africa’s president said the United States now wants to reverse its boycott and join the G20 summit

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The United States government has indicated it has “changed its mind” and wants to participate in the G20 summit in South Africa in reversing its boycott, South Africa’s president said Thursday.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the summit’s host country received communications from the United States at the “eleventh hour” and was now working on logistics to accommodate the United States.

Read more: At the first G20 summit held in Africa, leaders urged the rich world to do more to confront climate disasters

US President Donald Trump announced that his administration would boycott the two-day meeting of rich and developing countries in Johannesburg, which begins on Saturday. Trump said that the United States is boycotting the conference because of his allegations that Ramaphosa’s government is violently persecuting the white minority.

Ramaphosa, who was speaking after a meeting with senior EU officials in Johannesburg, said communications had been received from the United States while he was at that meeting.

“The United States is a member of the G20, they are an original member of the G20, so they have the right to be here,” Ramaphosa told reporters. “All we’re trying to do is look at the practicalities… so they can participate.”

Ramaphosa said “we hope” that the US seat at the summit will be filled when it opens, but did not indicate who might represent the US government.

Read more: Trump said the US would boycott the G20 in South Africa, repeating his claims about the “mistreatment” of white farmers

Trump had said that Vice President J.D. Vance would represent the United States before the boycott was announced.

Ramaphosa had said earlier Thursday that the meeting would issue a joint declaration despite the US boycott and what he said was pressure from Washington not to issue a declaration. He said the United States sent a diplomatic message to South Africa advising that “a declaration should not be adopted” at the summit because the United States was not present and therefore there would be no consensus.

Instead, the United States wants South Africa to issue only a watered-down statement to culminate the summit, which is the culmination of more than 120 meetings hosted by Africa’s most developed country since it assumed the rotating G20 presidency this year.

Trump has repeatedly criticized South Africa since his return to office. He had a tense meeting with Ramaphosa at the White House in May, when he confronted the South African leader with unfounded allegations of widespread violence against Afrikaners in South Africa.

Read more: How Trump’s support for white South Africans led to a US boycott of the G20 summit

The US President repeated his claims in the run-up to the G20 summit that Ramaphosa’s black-led government was pursuing racist, anti-white policies against the white Afrikaner minority.

The United States will take over the rotating G20 presidency from South Africa, and Ramaphosa had previously said he would have to move it to Trump’s “empty chair” in Johannesburg, although he said he would speak to Trump after the summit.

The G20 is a bloc of 19 countries, including the richest economies but also the largest developing economies. The European Union and the African Union are also members.

South Africa, the first African country to hold the rotating presidency, hopes to use its summit to achieve progress on issues that particularly affect poor countries. This includes mitigating the impact of climate change and weather-related disasters, alleviating the debt burden of developing countries, and addressing global wealth inequality.

Read more: Trump limits the annual number of American refugees to 7,500 people. Most of them will be white South Africans

The United States has previously mocked South Africa’s priorities for the group, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio absent from the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in February and dismissing South Africa’s priorities as related to diversity, equality, inclusion and climate change.

Rubio said he would not waste American taxpayer money on this agenda.

Other leaders are also absent from the G20 summit, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Argentine Javier Miley, but have sent delegations to represent them.

“The only country that was not in the room was the United States, and of course they chose not to be in the room,” Xolisa Mabhungo, South Africa’s ambassador to the G20, told national broadcaster SABC this week.