PREVIEW
Macron denies he buckled under US pressure to exclude South Africa from western G7 crisis summit in France
There was much diplomatic manoeuvring after a presidential spokesman in South Africa announced on 26 March that France’s invitation to President Cyril Ramaphosa to attend the G7 summit in June had been withdrawn following a request by United States President Donald Trump. Initially, neither the Elysée Palace nor the Quai d’Orsay in Paris offered a comment, let alone an explanation. The same went for the White House and the State Department in Washington.
But by the following morning, President Ramaphosa was telling local broadcaster eNCA in Johannesburg that: ‘My information is that there has been no pressure from any country, the US or any other country …we haven’t attended every G7, so if we don’t go to this should never be a surprise to anyone.’ Hours later, Nick Checker, who heads the State Department’s Bureau for African Affairs, concurred there was no pressure on France on exclude Ramaphosa. After that France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot insisted there was no pressure, and the decision was in line with his government’s decision to run a more streamlined G7 summit.
Whatever the truth behind this shape-shifting, Kenya’s President William Ruto has emerged as a net winner and will represent Africa at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains. Prior to the G7 summit will co-host a two-day France/Africa summit in Nairobi on 11-12 May. Kenya will attend alongside South Korea, India and Brazil – as well as the western G7 members.
France has said that the four invitations were part of efforts to ‘correct global economic imbalances’. Trump, who took over the Group of 20 presidency from Ramaphosa, was quick to exclude South Africa from this year’s G20 summit in Miami (Dispatches, 8/12/25, Taking revenge, Trump excludes South Africa from next G20 summit in Miami).
Neither South Africa or Kenya is a member of the G7 of the world’s largest economies, but while Trump has repeatedly targeted Pretoria with trade tariffs and bogus accusations of ‘genocide’ against white farmers, Ruto has positioned himself as an ally to Trump, hoping to strike a trade deal with the US and being among the first to agree a health funding agreement that will give US firms access to Kenyan health data (Dispatches, 2/3/26, Washington’s healthcare deals rejected as exploitative).
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