Congress MP and General Secretary Jairam Ramesh. File.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
NEW DELHI
The Congress said on Friday (November 21, 2025) that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “safely and securely” attending the G20 summit because the U.S. President Donald Trump had chosen to boycott it.
In a post on X, Congress general secretary (communication), Jairam Ramesh wanted to know, if “huglomacy” with “my good friend” would be revived at the next summit of the grouping in America.
Prime Minister Modi embarked on a three-day visit to South Africa on Friday to attend the G20 Summit in Johannesburg.
Avoiding Trump
“The Prime Minister is attending the G20 Summit in South Africa today and tomorrow. He is doing so safely and securely since President Trump and the US are boycotting the summit. Recall that Mr. Modi didn’t go to Kuala Lumpur a few days back for the India-ASEAN Summit since he would then have to come face-to-face with President Trump,” Mr. Ramesh said on X, adding, “It is extraordinary that the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the US opposes South Africa’s G20 themes of solidarity, equality, and sustainability on the grounds that they amount to anti-Americanism.”
The Congress leader pointed out that the G20 Presidency rotates annually, and India took over from Indonesia in November 2023, and Brazil took charge in November 2024.
“Now South Africa is to hand over to the U.S., which will not be present. So the next G20 Summit a year from now will be in the U.S. By then, presumably, India’s trade (or)deal with the U.S. will be done. But if, over the past seven months, President Trump has claimed 61 times that he halted Operation Sindoor, imagine how many more times he will repeat those claims in the next twelve months. Will huglomacy with “my good friend” be revived, or will there be just handshakes, or will Mr. Modi decline? Time alone will tell,” Mr. Ramesh said.
Published – November 21, 2025 09:06 pm IST
