JOHANNESBURG — French Ambassador to South Africa David Martinon said South African officials should be allowed to attend meetings of the Group of 20 in the United States this year after they were barred by President Donald Trump. Martinon spoke in Johannesburg, where he addressed the dispute over South Africa's participation in the summit scheduled for December in Florida.

"France being also a founding member of the G20, we consider of course that South Africa is a full-fledged member of the G20 and should be part of all of its meetings," Martinon said. He said there have been discussions among diplomatic officials from G20 countries over South Africa's barring and its potential absence from the summit at Trump's Miami-area Doral golf club.

Trump said last year he would not invite South Africa to the G20 summit that the U.S. will host in Florida in December. The Trump administration has criticized South Africa's Black-led government as being anti-white and anti-American, and Trump claimed there is a widespread campaign of violence against the country's white minority farmers.

Other G20 members criticized Trump's move to bar South Africa from the summit, saying no country should have the authority to bar another. The G20 operates on a consensus basis. South Africa is the only African nation in the group.

The South African government said the U.S. decision to bar South Africa from this year's G20 is a "punitive move" based on "completely false" information.

U.S. embassy officials took part in a handover ceremony to the next host country at the end of South Africa's G20 summit last year. South Africa refused to allow them to participate in the handover ceremony, stating it was an insult that President Cyril Ramaphosa should hand over to junior diplomatic officials.

France said it did not rescind an invitation to South Africa to attend the Group of Seven summit it hosts in June. France opted for a streamlined G7 summit in the resort town of Évian-les-Bains. Leaders of India, Brazil, Kenya and South Korea have been invited as guests to the G7 summit alongside the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.