South Africa has skated over the latest criticism from US President Donald Trump, who has said he does not think the country should be part of the G20 any longer.
Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told the BBC his country was confident it would host a very successful G20 summit when leaders from the world's largest economies gather in Johannesburg later this month.
Trump, who has repeatedly accused South Africa of discriminating against its white minority, will not be attending - sending Vice-President JD Vance instead.
South Africa shouldn't even be in the Gs any more, because what's happened there is bad. I'm not going to represent our country there. It shouldn't be there, Trump said at a conference in Miami on Wednesday.
South Africa's government declined to make a full statement in response to these comments, though last week it hit back at the US's decision to prioritize refugee applications from white South African Afrikaners, who are mostly descendants of Dutch and French settlers.
It said claims of a white genocide had been widely discredited and lacked reliable evidence. South Africa's latest crime statistics do not indicate that more white people have fallen victim to violent crime than other racial groups.
This year South Africa has adopted the theme of solidarity, equality and sustainability - something the country's foreign ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri emphasized following Trump's criticism. Phiri stated, ... South Africa is uniquely positioned to champion within the G20 a future of genuine solidarity, where shared prosperity bridges deep inequalities.
