Foreign policy
Ramaphosa made his first international trip as the president of South Africa on 2 March 2018 to the Republic of Angola and met with President João Lourenço as the chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
On 20 March 2018, Ramaphosa made a trip to Kigali, Rwanda, along with Foreign Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, and met with President Paul Kagame and spoke about restoring relations between South Africa and Rwanda, later participating as panelists on the African Continental Free Trade Area Business Forum (ACFTABF) ahead of the 10th African Union Extraordinary Summit. The following day, Ramaphosa signed the Kigali Declaration on the establishment of the ACFTABF at the 10th African Union Extraordinary Summit.
Ramaphosa hosted the 11th BRICS summit for 25–27 July 2018, at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.
On 10 May 2021, Ramaphosa said that the ANC condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the potential evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem and the "brutal attacks on Palestinian protesters" at Al-Aqsa.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, launched on 24 February 2022, Ramaphosa did not condemn Russia or agree to any sanctions against Russia. A month later, he stated that maintaining neutrality was essential to his having been asked to mediate between the two countries' leadership. Ramaphosa blamed NATO's proximity to Russian borders for the war: "The war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from amongst its own leaders and officials over the years that its eastward expansion would lead to greater, not less, instability in the region." On 11 May 2023, the United States ambassador to South Africa alleged the country was supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia. Days later, Ramaphosa announced his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts have agreed that a delegation of African heads of state could visit Moscow and Kyiv to present a peace plan. "Whether that will succeed or not is going to depend on the discussions that will be held," he said.
In November 2022, Ramaphosa became the first foreign head of state to make a formal state visit to the United Kingdom during the reign of King Charles III. He was made an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath by Charles.
On 16 May 2023, Ramaphosa announced that the leaders of African countries came up with a new initiative for peace in Ukraine. In June 2023, Ramaphosa led a delegation to Russia and Ukraine, which also included heads of state from Zambia, the Republic of Congo, Egypt, Uganda and Senegal. After a meeting with Ramaphosa in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that peace talks with Russia would be possible only after Moscow withdraws its forces from the entire occupied territory. Ramaphosa visited the site of a mass grave in the town of Bucha, Ukraine and was in Kyiv during Russia's missile attack on the city. Putin later admitted to Ramaphosa that he had ordered the bombing of Kyiv that day despite the presence of an African delegation in the city. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg and told Putin that the war must end, but Putin rejected the delegation's peace plan based on accepting Ukraine's internationally recognized borders.
In July 2023, Ramaphosa attended the 2023 Russia–Africa Summit in Saint Petersburg and met with Russian President Putin. Ramaphosa called for peace in Ukraine and expressed concern about the global food crisis and rising fertilizer prices.
Ramaphosa called for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, stating "as South Africans we can relate to what is happening to Palestinians". He condemned Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and the "collective punishment" of Palestinians in Gaza. Ramaphosa described Israel as an "oppressive regime".
With his support, South Africa filed a case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice on Dec. 29, 2023, under the Genocide Convention. In a statement, South Africa said: "President Ramaphosa emphasized that South Africa’s action through the ICJ was an attempt to ensure that the same global solidarity that helped end Apartheid in South Africa should be mobilised to end the Apartheid that Palestinians are experiencing, including an end to the genocide of Palestinians."
In January 2024, Ramaphosa met with Hemedti, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in their first meeting since the start of the Sudanese Civil War. He called for a ceasefire without reference to the humanitarian situation in the country. He has emerged to embrace civilian politicians and tour African capitals in a bid for international legitimacy, analysts said.
In October 2024, he attended the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and other leaders.
In January 2025, South African Defense Minister Angie Motshekga stated that the M23 offensive against South African positions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in the death of 13 South African peacekeepers, was only alleviated after President Ramaphosa told the Rwandan government that continued attacks would be interpreted by South Africa as a "declaration of war" by Rwanda. President Ramphosa later also wrote on X that the South African peacekeepers had been killed by the "Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) militia."
On 21 May 2025, Ramaphosa visited the White House in Washington, D.C. for a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, in a high-profile diplomatic engagement aimed at addressing escalating tensions between the two nations. This was after the U.S. offered refugee status to 59 white Afrikaners on the basis of the alleged persecution of the Afrikaner minority and the enactment of the Expropriation Act, 2024. The visit was broadly considered a success, and it was followed by President Ramaphosa announcing that President Trump would attend the 2025 G20 summit in South Africa (which Trump had originally declined to do). International relations experts and economists welcomed the announcement.
In 2026 Ramaphosa endorsed the campaign to free Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian political leader and prisoner of Israel who has been compared to Nelson Mandela. The move prompted criticism from the South African Zionist Federation.
