Sawt Falasteen - G20 foreign ministers meet in South Africa without US on board

As a curtain-raiser to the G20 summit in November, the foreign ministers will gather for talks over two days, held for the first time in Africa.

South Africa, the first African country to lead the forum, took over the G20 presidency last year in a move meant to be an opportunity to get wealthy nations to listen to their poorer counterparts.

The group currently consists of 19 countries, as well as the European Union and the African Union, making up more than 80 percent of global GDP and two-thirds of the world population.

But the group's richest member, the United States, will skip the two-day talks after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he will not attend and accused Pretoria of an "anti-American" agenda.

Wars and conflicts in Africa and Europe would be common themes, South African ambassador Xolisa Mabhongo said on Wednesday.

Yet, "the elephant in the room is the geopolitical context in which this meeting is taking place", Priyal Singh, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, told AFP.

The talks come amid heightened tensions over the Russia-Ukraine conflict after US President Donald Trump appeared to blame Kyiv for the fact that Russia invaded it nearly three years ago.

Trump's comments followed hours after talks between US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia that Ukraine did not attend.

The "rift forming between the US and its European partners" has been laid bare, Singh said.

This risks "derailing" South Africa's ability to push through a "common developmental agenda", he added.

- 'Symbolic message' -

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese and Indian counterparts have confirmed their attendance.

European diplomats including France's Jean-Noel Barrot and the UK's David Lammy will likewise be present.

But the United States will be represented by Dana Brown, the deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in Pretoria.

"It might be at the lower level, but they will be represented. It's not a complete boycott of South Africa's G20," South Africa's foreign minister Ronald Lamola reassured a press conference on Wednesday.

Still, Rubio's absence will further "distract the focus of the meeting," warned William Gumede, professor of public management at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

"It sends a symbolic message to Africans: the US is not taking Africa seriously," he said.

Earlier this month, the United States froze desperately needed aid to Africa, sending many governments scrambling to find funds for services including health.

South Africa has particularly been in the crosshairs of Washington which cut off financial support to the country over a contentious land policy and a case against US-ally Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Trump has accused the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa of "confiscating" land from white farmers and treating "certain classes" of people badly, without providing evidence.

Pretoria has rejected the claim as misinformed and said they will "not be intimidated, distracted, nor bullied into submission".

For analyst Gumede, a question lingered ahead of Thursday's meeting: "How can South Africa salvage this and turn the absence of the US into an opportunity?"

Z.AlNajjar--SF-PST