Foreign ministers of the Group of 20 economies have begun meeting in South Africa. But the top US diplomat is absent amid strained relations between his country and the host.



South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the two-day meeting, which began in Johannesburg on Thursday. He stressed the importance of the first gathering in Africa under the G20 framework.



Ramaphosa called the meeting "a great opportunity to promote greater collaboration between African nations and the rest of the world."



But he added, "Geopolitical tensions, rising intolerance, conflict and war, climate change, pandemics and energy and food insecurity threaten an already fragile global coexistence."



Participants at the meeting include Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi as well as his Chinese and Russian counterparts Wang Yi and Sergey Lavrov.



But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided to skip the meeting, denouncing a land law enacted in South Africa last month.



The law allows the state to seize land even without compensation in some cases. South Africa's government says it helps rectify the situation in which the country's white minority owns most private land as a legacy of past colonial occupation and the system of racial discrimination known as apartheid.



US President Donald Trump signed an executive order this month to freeze aid and assistance to South Africa.



The US government plans not to send Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in South Africa next week.