South Africa is making its final preparations to host the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, even as the United States confirms it will not be sending President Donald Trump. City officials say infrastructure, roads, and traffic systems are being repaired ahead of the two-day gathering.
Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola insists the U.S. absence is not a political snub, calling high-level no-shows a routine part of global summits. With world leaders arriving and repairs underway across the city, Johannesburg is preparing for one of the most significant diplomatic events in its history.
01:02We're focused on them, especially for the visit.
01:05And there are also those issues that require us that even beyond the G20, we continue with maintenance.
01:12We continue to ensure that streets, traffic lights are working, streets are proper, there are no courtholes.
01:19So we'll continue to do that and maintain our infrastructure.
02:54I mean, from tourism?
02:58Whether we read anything to this as a snap of some sort or undermining Africa, no.
03:05We don't see this as a snap or undermining of Africa.
03:09In all multilateral platforms events, it does happen for whatever reasons that heads of states are not able to attend and they will delegate whoever they decide to delegate, either their foreign minister or whoever the head of state decides to delegate for whatever reasons and whatever architecture of that country.
03:34It's nothing abnormal.
03:35Even with the U.S., when they raised concerns, we did our best to accommodate them.
03:50And they did come back into some of the meetings at some point.
03:55At some point, it was indicated that there will be fully participants and including at the leaders' summit that will be represented at the vice president level.
04:05But they have now decided out of their own volition and not being pushed out of the G20 by South Africa.
04:14We, our doors remain open for them if they want to participate at the leaders' level of the summit at the right level.
04:24The doors are still open because they are not expelled.
04:27They decided on their own.
04:30So from this context, we are ready to proceed with the meeting.
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