G20, explained.
Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's president, speaks at the South Africa Investment Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, this week to promote South Africa as trade partner and investment destination (Leon Sadiki/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Non-alignment is becoming harder – and costlier – to sustain.
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Blocking South Africa from the G7 and G20 carries a wider message to the worldBlocking South Africa from the G7 and G20 carries a wider message to the world
As it stands, South Africa will not attend the upcoming Group of Seven (G7) Leaders’ Summit in June, despite earlier indications that it had been invited by host nation France. South African officials said the United States had raised concerns about its participation. However, Pretoria later said the decision on the invitation could not be attributed to Washington.
South Africa is not a member of the G7, which comprises the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. It has, however, been regularly invited to outreach sessions at the discretion of the host country. France has extended an invitation this year to Kenya.
South Africa has also not been invited to participate in the 2026 Group of Twenty (G20). In this instance, however, South Africa is a full member of the G20, a forum that brings together advanced and emerging economies to coordinate on global economic and financial issues. The United States, as the 2026 host, has made clear that South Africa will not be included.
As a result, South Africa has been sidelined from two major global forums.
South Africa has sought to sustain relationships across the geopolitical divide, maintaining engagement with Western-led forums while deepening its role within BRICS+ and broader Global South coalitions. Although its diplomatic positioning has at times been criticised as inconsistent, this formally non-aligned approach has enabled it to cultivate a wide network of bilateral relationships.
However, in a period of heightened geopolitical tension, the scope for maintaining this approach has narrowed. The consequence has been South Africa’s exclusion from key global forums and real economic costs.
The deterioration in bilateral relations between the United States and South Africa has unfolded over several months, marked by the introduction of the United States–South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act of 2025, now before Congress, and the imposition of tariffs on South African exports that have disrupted key sectors of the economy.
Exclusion signals a loss of access to the arenas where global narratives are shaped, policy priorities are set and investment flows are directed.
At the centre of the dispute are differences over South Africa’s foreign policy direction. In Washington, lawmakers have argued that Pretoria’s actions are inconsistent with its stated policy of non-alignment, pointing to what they characterise as South Africa actively of siding with “malign actors”, including Hamas, alongside its close ties with Russia and China and its engagement with Iran-linked networks. These positions have increasingly been treated not as instances of diplomatic independence, but as indicative of alignment with actors seen as adversarial to United States interests.
These developments point to a broader shift in the international system, in which intensifying geopolitical competition is reshaping how cooperation is organised and how states are assessed. While countries have sought to operate across multiple frameworks to preserve flexibility, expectations around alignment have become more explicit, placing that approach under increasing strain. Positions once accommodated as part of a broader diplomatic posture are now more readily judged in strategic terms.
For South Africa, exclusion from this year’s G7 and G20 is unlikely to be decisive. These institutions remain important, but Pretoria retains a substantial base of bilateral relationships and continues to operate within a range of multilateral and minilateral coalitions.
However, the underlying signal is more consequential. It points to an emerging pattern in which deteriorating relations with key powers can translate into rapid marginalisation from influential global platforms. In a more contested international environment, diplomatic friction is increasingly capable of producing swift and tangible effects.
The implications are both symbolic and material. Exclusion signals a loss of access to the arenas where global narratives are shaped, policy priorities are set and investment flows are directed. Reduced participation risks constraining not only South Africa’s diplomatic influence, but also its ability to shape the terms under which external financing and economic engagement are structured.
Navigating this environment is unlikely to become easier and will require disciplined and consistent foreign policy positioning. Yet it would be premature to discount South Africa. As a significant regional power with considerable geostrategic weight, it retains the ability to generate leverage and pursue an independent course. The challenge is that such autonomy will increasingly need to be exercised within a more constrained and contested global landscape.
About the author
Jana de Kluiver
Jana de Kluiver is a political economist and strategy advisor specialising in Africa’s place in the global economy.
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