South Africa remains willing to negotiate with the United States over disputed policies, including rules affecting foreign investors’ Black employment and ownership requirements, Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said. The countries had been discussing how to accommodate new US participants in South Africa’s mining sector and were making progress before Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced visa restrictions on South Africans on September 15. The restrictions cited concerns about South African laws and policies, but Rubio did not specify who would be affected. Lamola said Pretoria was surprised by the measures but did not want a retaliatory confrontation because of the importance of the economic relationship. President Donald Trump’s administration has also criticized South Africa’s efforts to address racial inequality, land reform policies and its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Lamola described Washington’s resettlement program for white Afrikaners as race-based and questioned their refugee designation, while saying South Africa would not obstruct participants. He said the court should independently decide the genocide case under international law. After the visa announcement, the US ambassador to South Africa called the measures the first in a series of escalatory steps and said endless dialogue had ended. Lamola rejected that position, saying a diplomat should continue pursuing dialogue, and said only Washington knows whether the relationship can recover.