On Sunday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked for the African Union (AU) to join the G20, a club of the world’s richest countries that will gather in India in September.
“We have invited the African Union with the intention of granting it permanent membership in the G20,” Narendra Modi stated at the B20 business gathering conducted ahead of the G20 summit on September 9 and 10.
In December, US Vice President Joe Biden reiterated his desire for the African Union to become a permanent member of the G20, saying that “it was going to happen.”
Only South Africa is presently a member of the G20, which brings together 19 of the world’s top economies plus the European Union, comprising 85% of global GDP and two-thirds of global population.
The AU is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, and has 55 member countries with a combined GDP of three trillion dollars.
The Indian Prime Minister also stated that his country, China’s main adversary, was capable of compensating for supply issues caused by the Covid situation.
India is the “solution” to create “a reliable global supply chain” , because “the world has changed a lot after Covid-19”, Mr Modi said.
Thursday at the BRICS summit (group of large emerging countries) in South Africa, Mr. Modi spoke one-on-one with Chinese President Xi Jinping.