Prime Minister Narendra Modi has written to his Group of 20 (G20) counterparts urging the African Union to seek full membership in the group at its September summit in Delhi, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
The proposal was made in line with a request from the Union, which is made up of 55 countries on the African continent, the people said. The move, they said, is aimed at strengthening Africa’s voice “on the international stage and in shaping the future of our shared world”.
The G20 group, which was founded in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis, includes the 20 largest economies. The members of the grouping are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. .
The people said Modi has led from the front on the African Union’s membership of the G20, which he strongly advocates and supports.
The African Union’s membership of the G20 will be “a step in the right direction towards a fair, just, more inclusive and representative global architecture and governance”, said one of the people cited above.
India is set to host the G20 summit in New Delhi in September.
Modi also strongly believes that countries of the Global South, especially African countries, have a greater voice on international platforms, the people said.
Under India’s chairmanship of the G20, Modi focused on incorporating the priorities of African countries into the grouping’s agenda, they said.
Earlier this year, India hosted the Voice of the Global South summit, which aimed to identify the priorities and concerns of developing countries so that they could be incorporated into the G20 agenda this year.
While the G7 pushed back against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, India pushed the G20 to focus on the economic impact of the Ukraine crisis, particularly food, fuel and fertilizer shortages in the Global South.
The African Union was established in 2001 to replace the Organization of African Unity. The total population of African Union member states is more than 1.3 billion. The African Union represents the interests of African states in international forums and has permanent observer status at the United Nations General Assembly.
