President Ramaphosa will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington DC to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of interest,” South Africa’s presidency said last week in a statement. Ramaphosa is in the US on a working visit from 19 to 22 May.
“The president’s visit to the US provides a platform to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries,” the statement added.
Ramaphosa has been trying to come to the US for several months, as the trouble between the US and South Africa has been brewing, according to Cameron Hudson, senior fellow at the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“And it has obviously spilled over in the last few weeks to a real crisis moment,” he told RFI.