New Delhi : The Group of 20 top world economies welcomed the African Union as a member, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Saturday, adding momentum to his drive to give a greater voice to the Global South as host of this year’s annual summit.
Modi announced the membership during his opening speech for the weekend summit of the G20. Growing global rifts and the absence of key players threatened to make reaching a consensus on the thorniest issues elusive.
There was widespread support, however, for adding the AU to the G20, making it the second regional bloc to become a permanent member after the European Union.
Modi rapped his gavel three times before announcing the move to applause in the room, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
He shook hands with the current AU chair, Comoros President Azali Assoumani, and embraced him warmly before inviting him to sit at the table.
Modi has made giving voice to the Global South a centerpiece of this year’s summit, and adding the AU at the outset was a strong step in that direction.
With much of the world’s focus on conflict in Ukraine, India wants to direct more attention to addressing the needs of the developing world at the summit though it is impossible to decouple many issues, such as food and energy security.
The G20 agenda featured issues critical to developing nations, including alternative fuels like hydrogen, resource efficiency, food security, and developing a common framework for digital public infrastructure.
Countries were also expected to address reforming development banks like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to help make funds more accessible for lower- and middle-income countries as they seek solutions to combat climate change, among other things.
India’s lead G20 negotiator, Amitabh Kant, told reporters that boosting climate action and climate financing were key priorities, particularly for developing and emerging markets.
On Friday evening, before the meeting got formally underway, Modi met with U.S. President Joe Biden. White House aide Kurt Campbell told reporters afterward that there was an “undeniable warmth and confidence between the two leaders.”
Leaders of the U.S., India, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates were working to finalize a joint infrastructure deal involving ship and rail transit between India and the Middle East to Türkiye and beyond, in hopes it could be announced in New Delhi during the summit.
Campbell called the emerging deal a potentially “earth-shattering” project and said that “the strongest supporter of this initiative is India.” In the past, Campbell said, India’s leaders have had “almost a knee-jerk reaction” to resist such massive multilateral projects.
