Congress asks if PM Modi will raise South Africa’s G20 exclusion with ‘good friend’ Trump

The Congress on Friday asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would raise South Africa’s case with U.S. President Donald Trump, after Mr. Trump said he would bar the country from participating in next year’s G20 summit in Miami.

The principal Opposition party’s query came after Mr. Trump announced that South Africa would not be invited to the 2026 G20 meeting, accusing Pretoria of mistreating a U.S. government representative at this year’s summit and vowing to “stop all payments and subsidies” to the country.

Senior leader Anand Sharma called President Trump’s decision “an insult to the African continent and the Global South” and said it violated the G20’s foundational principle of sovereign equality.

“India has a moral duty to take a firm position and mobilise the Global South to collectively reject the new imperialism,” Mr. Sharma said in a post on social media platform X.

Reacting to the remarks, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said South Africa had been a member of the G20 since its inception, not because of any “favour” from the United States but because it is the largest African economy by GDP.

“It was very much present at the very first G20 Summit held in Washington DC that was chaired by President George W. Bush and has been a valued presence in all subsequent G20 Summits,” Mr. Ramesh said on X.

Highlighting the deep ties between India and South Africa, he noted that India and South Africa are part of the original BRICS grouping along with Brazil, Russia and China, as well as IBSA and BASIC. “It has often been remarked that an Indian lawyer went to South Africa in the late 19th century and returned home as a revolutionary in the early years of the 20th century to lead India’s independence movement,” Mr. Ramesh said, invoking Mahatma Gandhi’s formative years.

The Congress leader said India had long been at the forefront of the global struggle against apartheid and shares a historic moral commitment to South Africa. “The Prime Minister is the self-proclaimed champion of both Africa and the Global South. Will he take up South Africa’s cause with his good friend and ensure that it will get to attend the next G20 Summit, as it is perfectly entitled to?” he asked.

President Trump had earlier refused to send a U.S. delegation to the G20 summit hosted by South Africa, claiming that white Afrikaners were being violently persecuted, an allegation Pretoria dismissed as baseless. Later, he said South Africa had declined to hand over G20 hosting responsibilities to a senior U.S. embassy representative, prompting him to block its invitation for 2026.