South Africa-EU summit centers on boosting trade and diplomatic ties as
both feel Trump's impact
[March 13, 2025]
By GERALD IMRAY
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Senior European Union officials were in
South Africa for a summit Thursday with President Cyril Ramaphosa that
center on bolstering trade and diplomatic ties as both feel the impact
of the Trump administration's confrontational foreign policy.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council
President António Costa will meet with Ramaphosa at his Cape Town office
in the first EU-South Africa summit since 2018.
The focus of the 27-nation bloc will switch to its biggest trading
partner in sub-Saharan Africa after the EU announced retaliatory tariffs
against Washington in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's new
duties on steel and aluminium.
The summit in South Africa will “explore new avenues for economic, trade
and investment cooperation, as well as address any challenges and trade
irritants,” the European Council said.
South Africa has been singled out for sanctions by the Trump
administration over some domestic and foreign policies that the U.S.
leader has cast as anti-American.
Trump issued an executive order last month cutting all U.S. funding to
South Africa, accusing it of a human rights violation against a white
minority group in the country, and of supporting some “bad actors” in
the world like the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran.
Von der Leyen's visit will also likely reemphasize the EU's support for
South Africa's presidency of the Group of 20 leading rich and developing
nations this year, another area where the U.S. has criticized South
Africa while boycotting some early G20 meetings.
South Africa hopes to use its leadership of the group to make progress
on help for poor countries, especially on debt relief and more financing
to mitigate the impact of climate change.
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European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen walks to brief
European Parliament members on new plans to ramp up defense spending
agreed at last week's summit, Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at the
European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Pascal
Bastien)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed some of those
priorities for the G20 and skipped a foreign ministers meeting of
the group in South Africa last month. He also said that he wouldn't
attend the main G20 summit in Johannesburg in November, indicating
that the U.S. would give little attention to attempts at
international cooperation through the bloc, which includes 19 of the
world's major economies, the EU and the African Union.
Rubio is attending talks with other top diplomats from the Group of
Seven industrialized democracies in Canada starting Thursday.
The EU said that von der Leyen would use the meeting in South Africa
to announce a new investment package that uses public and private
grants and loans to finance green energy projects in South Africa,
improve transport infrastructure like railways and ports, and
strengthen its vaccine production capacity.
The U.S. withdrew this month from an agreement that gave funding to
South Africa and two other developing nations to help them
transition to clean energy sources. The EU has also pledged money to
that Just Energy Transition Partnership and said that it's still
committed to the program.
“My message: Europe values its partnership with South Africa,” von
der Leyen said in a statement before the meeting with Ramaphosa.
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