President Cyril Ramaphosa welcomes French President Emmanuel Macron at the Johannesburg Expo Centre for the G20 Leaders' Summit, Johannesburg, South Africa, 22 November 2025. (Photo: EPA/HALDEN KROG / POOL) French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has denied that pressure from US President Donald Trump prompted President Emmanuel Macron to withdraw his invitation to President Cyril Ramaphosa to attend the G7 in Evian, France, in June.
Barrot did nonetheless confirm that Ramaphosa is no longer invited to attend. On Thursday, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya confirmed to Daily Maverick that France’s ambassador to South Africa (SA), David Martinon, had told the Presidency that Macron had been forced to withdraw Ramaphosa’s invitation, which was first reported by News24.
“The reason we were given was that it was due to sustained pressure from the US, including a threat to boycott the G7 Summit,” Magwenya said. “Therefore, they couldn’t risk missing a key member of the G7, hence the withdrawal of their invitation, which President Macron personally extended to President Ramaphosa last year during the G20 summit here in Johannesburg.”
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ED_547486.jpg "French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot at the official opening of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting. (Photo: Gallo Images / Alet Pretorius)")
‘No pressure’
Yet Barrot insisted: “We have not yielded to any pressure, but have made a choice consistent with our decision to hold a streamlined G7 focused on geo-economic issues.”
In a statement, he added that “we have chosen to invite Kenya to Evian in light of the work we are doing together to prepare the Africa Forward summit, the Africa–France summit, which will take place on 11 and 12 May in Nairobi”.
“We have always relied on South Africa and respect the important role it plays in international affairs. We remain, of course, in close contact with South Africa, which remains an essential partner of France on all major global issues.”
It remains unclear how Ramaphosa’s absence will affect the summit agenda.
According to Reuters, a White House official supported France’s account, saying: “The French, in their capacity as 2026 G7 host, expressed a desire in January to invite an African nation to the June G7 leaders’ summit in Evian. After discussion among G7 members, it was collectively determined that Kenya should be invited to the summit. The United States welcomes Kenya’s participation.”
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1763067241.jpg "President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Emmanuel Macron at the Rugby World Cup France 2023 on October 28, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images)")
Martinon told Daily Maverick in an interview last month that Macron had assured Ramaphosa at their meeting at the G20 summit in Johannesburg last November that he would take up key points of SA’s G20 agenda in his presidency of the G7.
He said France had welcomed SA’s hosting of a successful G20 in 2025 that had put many developmental issues on the global agenda. Trump boycotted the Johannesburg G20 summit, and then disinvited SA from America’s presidency of the G20 in 2026.
Martinon said that although the US, in its presidency of the G20 this year, would probably drop many parts of SA’s agenda, “the legacy of the South African presidency is not gone”.
“And that’s also what President Macron told President Ramaphosa, that he wants to continue the work on those topics in the French G7 presidency, meaning climate change, cost of capital for developing countries, multilateralism; all those topics are absolutely key in President Macron’s mind and intentions.”
Martinon said Macron had already disclosed this to other members of the G7.
Prevention ‘unacceptable’
A French diplomat told Daily Maverick on Friday: “We have told the American G20 presidency that it is unacceptable for South Africa to be prevented from participating in the preparation of the G20 summit.”
In a Daily Maverick interview this month, German ambassador Andreas Peschke said Germany would fully support Macron in putting key parts of SA’s G20 agenda on the G7 agenda.
Whether Macron will manage to pursue these issues with an aggressive US president at the table in Evian is not certain though. Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, national director of the SA Institute of International Affairs, said there were some elements on Macron’s G7 agenda that reflected some of SA’s priorities.
“But given that G7 is also consensus-based, what comes out at the end may not be all that France wanted. Canada had similar challenges last year,” she added, referring to the failure of the leaders to agree on a communique, largely because of Trump’s opposition.
Magwenya made clear that the South African government was determined not to take offence, either with the US or with France.
“The process to reset the relationship with the US remains ongoing. We remain committed to engaging in constructive dialogue with the US to resolve whatever dispute they have with South Africa.
“Our bilateral relationship with France remains strong, and will not be impacted by their withdrawal of the invitation to attend the G7 Summit.” DM