President Cyril Ramaphosa said Wednesday the United States boycott of the G20 summit in South Africa later this month would not prevent the meeting of the world's leading economies from going ahead.

Pretoria and Washington have clashed over a range of policy issues, including South Africa's summit agenda, culminating in President Donald Trump announcing at the weekend that no US official will attend the Johannesburg gathering.

"We will take fundamental decisions and their absence is their loss," Ramaphosa told reporters in the coastal city of Cape Town.

"In many ways, the United States is also giving up the very important role that they should be playing as the biggest economy in the world," he added.

Following in the footsteps of his staunch ally and financial backer Trump, Argentinia

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