South Africa invites Singapore to participate in G-20 meetings as guest country

SINGAPORE - Singapore has been invited by South Africa as a guest country to participate in Group of 20 meetings under its 2025 G-20 presidency.

“Singapore would like to express its appreciation to South Africa for the invitation,” Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in a Dec 3 statement.

“Singapore looks forward to working constructively with the South African G-20 Presidency and other G-20 members and guests,” it added.

This includes strengthening and advancing common efforts to promote inclusive economic growth, food security and artificial intelligence and innovation for sustainable development.

MFA said both Singapore and South Africa enjoy a longstanding and broad-based partnership, underpinned by strong people-to-people ties.

The two countries cooperate well in various areas, including trade and investment, air connectivity, information and communications technology and skills development, said MFA.

“Singapore will continue to actively contribute to the G-20 process both in our national capacity and as the Convenor of the Global Governance Group (3G),” MFA added.

The 3G group is an informal, cross-regional grouping of small and medium-sized countries established to facilitate greater engagement and coordination between the G-20 and non-G20 members, and to build inclusive global governance.

The annual summit of G-20 leaders will be held in Johannesburg in November 2025, Reuters reported.

South Africa is the first African country to lead the G-20, which was set up to bolster economic cooperation among leading developed and emerging economies and includes 19 sovereign nations along with the European Union and the African Union.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Dec 3 he would use the opportunity to advance the development priorities of Africa and the Global South.

The US will take over the G-20 presidency in 2026.