File: The flag of the European Union flying outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. AFP/Kenzo Tribouillard
PARIS - Leaders from across Europe are preparing for the G20 Summit in South Africa.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, held a call with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, ahead of the gathering in Johannesburg.
“I look forward to seeing the Prime Minister at the G20 next week,” she added, confirming one of many face-to-face meetings that leaders will hold on the sidelines of the main event, which will be hosted by South African president Cyril Ramaphosa.
The French president will also take part in the G20 leaders’ summit, which will take place 22-23 November.
South Africa will be the second stop on a regional tour that Emmanuel Macron is undertaking to tie in with the Johannesburg gathering.
He will start in Mauritius with a formal visit to the Indian Ocean island nation, the first by a French head of state since 1993.
Mauritius is a neighbour nation to La Reunion, a French territory just 260 kilometres away.
After South Africa, he will be back in Gabon for his first trip there since 2023, when he attended the One Forest Summit.
The aim of his 2025 visit will be threefold.
Firstly, President Macron will "welcome the completion of the transition" led by General Brice Oligui Nguema, who came to power after the 2023 coup.
He was formally elected to the presidency in April.
Secondly, the French presidency says it hopes to strengthen the bilateral partnership between France and Gabon, and support French companies operating in the country.
Finally, there will be the formal foundation of a national school in the capital, Libreville, dedicated to environmental security, as part of efforts to preserve the forests of the Congo Basin.
After his two-day stay in Gabon, Emmanuel Macron will head to the Angolan capital, Luanda, to join other European leaders at the latest African Union-European Union summit.
European leaders attending, while Trump and Xi skip summit
The attendance of multiple European leaders will be a boost for South Africa, after the United States confirmed that President Trump will not be attending this year’s leaders’ summit.
Trump said that it was a “total disgrace” that South Africa was holding the 2025 meeting, which the US president is missing due to widely discredited claims that white people are being persecuted in South Africa.
READ | Discussion | SA-US relations | US to skip G20 summit
The Trump administration granted refugee status to Afrikaners in May, and no US officials are set to attend the upcoming summit.
The South African government has hit back at Washington.
President Ramaphosa said "boycott politics doesn't work" and “boycotting never achieves anything of great impact, because decisions will be taken that will move the various issues ahead".
READ | Ramaphosa slams US G20 Summit boycott
Enoch Godongwana, South Africa’s finance minister, said "South Africa has been falsely accused of genocide against its white community and threatened with punitive sanctions based on these falsehoods”.
Chinese president Xi Jinping will also not be attending the gathering, with the country’s premier Li Qiang, going in his place.
Premier Li will be visiting Zambia in the lead-up to the summit.
This year’s summit will mark the first G20 leaders’ gathering to be held on the African continent, and other leaders who are likely to attend include Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, new Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi, and the Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.