February 19, 2025 17:06 GMT
US: Treasury Sec Bessent To Skip G20 Summit In South Africa - NYT
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The New York Times reportsthat US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to skip a G20 summit of finance ministers and central bankers in South Africa, next week. Should Bessent decline to attend the conference, it would forgo a key opportunity for Trump's Treasury team to meet with counterparts from China, Russia, India, and Brazil. Skipping the meeting appears to signal that the Trump administration sees little value in the kind of multilateralism championed by the G20.
- The Times notes that skipping, "such a major economic gathering is highly unusual for a Treasury secretary, particularly one who was just confirmed to his post three weeks ago... It follows a boycott of a similar meeting of foreign ministers this week in Johannesburg by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Mr. Rubio said he was skipping the meetings because he had no interest in wasting taxpayer money an “coddling” anti-Americanism."
- The report comes amid a major diplomatic rupture between Washington and Pretoria over a new land expropriation law and legal actions related to the war in Gaza, culminating in a threat to suspend South Africa's participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
- Semafor reported yesterday: "South Africa is preparing to dispatch a delegation of government and business leaders to Washington in an attempt to retain the country’s preferential access to the world’s largest economy — but only after similar trips to China and Europe."
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