World leaders are arriving in Johannesburg to take part in the G20 Leaders' Summit over the weekend.
Among them is the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, who will first hold a series of bi-lateral community and trade meetings today.
South Africa is Ireland's biggest trading partner on the African continent, with butter, cheese and whiskey the top exports.
€46million of Irish whiskey was shipped here last year and the market continues to grow. (There’s certainly plenty of it on prominent display on arrival at Johannesburg airport.)
Ireland is not a member of the G20 but has been invited as a guest by the South African government.
Why has Ireland been invited?
The two nations have what officials describe as a "warm bilateral relationship" - forged first when Ireland became the first Western nation to ban all apartheid-era goods, famously after a young Dunnes Stores worker refused to ring up South African grapefruits.
Later, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, became a key weapons inspector during the Northern Ireland Peace Process.
Then, last year, Ireland joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. On his visit to Ireland last month, Mr Ramaphosa thanked the Irish people for supporting South Africa’s "initiative of helping the people of Palestine".
Speaking ahead of his visit to Johannesburg Mr Martin said: "It is a tremendous honour that Ireland has been invited to participate in the G20 for the first time in history".
"We are deeply grateful to the South African Presidency for this invitation, and my attendance at the Leaders’ Summit is a culmination of work across Government over the past 12 months to make a positive contribution to the work of the G20".
US not in attendance this year
This is the first G20 Summit to be held on African soil. But there is something of a shadow hanging over it with the United States, the world’s biggest economy, refusing to attend.
Previously, the US President Donald Trump said it was a "total disgrace" that South Africa was hosting the summit, citing widely discredited claims of a "white genocide" in the country.
Mr Ramaphosa said South Africa would not be "bullied".
The diplomatic spat intensified yesterday when Mr Ramaphosa announced that he had received notice from the United States indicating "a change of mind about participating in one shape, form or other".
He said the notice came at "a late hour" before the summit but that it was a "positive sign" and discussions were ongoing.
But a short time later, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the South African leader of "running his mouth a little bit against the United States and the President of the United States", which she said was not appreciated by Mr Trump or his team.
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"The representative of the embassy in South Africa is simply there to recognise that the United States will be the host of the G20 they are receiving that send off at the end of the event," she said.
The United States is due to host the event in Miami next year.
"They are not there to participate in official talks, despite what the South African President is falsely claiming," she added.
South Africa’s chosen theme of "solidarity, equality and sustainability" – a slogan also on prominent display on arrival – was criticised by US officials, with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this year calling it "anti-Americanism".
