BERLIN

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday that all G20 members, including South Africa, should be invited to the next year’s summit in Florida.

Speaking at a press conference in Berlin, Merz criticized the US administration's absence from last weekend's G20 summit in Johannesburg and Trump's announcement that South Africa would not be invited to the US-hosted summit next year.

"I regretted that the American government was not present at the G20 meeting in Johannesburg last weekend," Merz said. "The US administration is needlessly giving up influence, including in a part of the world that is becoming increasingly important."

The conservative leader said he would raise the issue in upcoming phone calls and meetings with Trump.

"I will try to convince the US president that it would be good to invite all G20 members to the US for next year's summit, as this is one of the most important multilateral formats we still have in the world," Merz said.

He emphasized the importance of maintaining the integrity of international forums like the G20 and G7.

"In my view, the G7 and G20 are formats that should not be made smaller than they are without good reason. They are important," he said. "I will, of course, accept the US president's invitation. In the meantime, we will try to convince him to invite the South African government as well."

Trump said on Wednesday that South Africa will not be invited to the 2026 G20 summit in Florida, citing the country's refusal to hand off the G20 presidency to a US Embassy representative.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump justified his decision to not attend the recent G20 summit in Johannesburg by accusing the African nation of refusing "to acknowledge or address the horrific human rights abuses endured by Afrikaners and other descendants of Dutch, French and German settlers."

Without presenting evidence, he claimed the government is "killing white people and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them."

The South African government has consistently rejected the claims, saying they rest on a "factually inaccurate.”