The African Union has become a permanent member of the G20, which includes the world’s richest and most powerful countries, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced at the bloc’s summit in New Delhi this Saturday, 09 September.
The African Union, a continental body of 55 member states, now has the same status as the European Union – the only regional bloc with full membership. Its previous name was “invited international organisation”.
Modi, in his opening speech at the summit, invited the AU, represented by President Azali Assoumani, to sit at the G20 leaders’ table as a permanent member.
“It is an honour to welcome the African Union as a permanent member of the G20 family. This will strengthen the G20 and also the voice of the Global South,” says a message on Modi’s official account on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The measure was proposed by Modi in June.
Other issues to be decided at the summit include more loans to developing countries by multilateral institutions, reform of the international debt architecture, regulations on cryptocurrency and the impact of geopolitics on food and energy security.
The 38-page draft circulated among members left the paragraph on the “geopolitical situation” blank – reflecting the deep division over the war in Ukraine – but 75 other paragraphs signalled broad agreement on issues such as cryptocurrencies and reforms in multilateral development banks.
The G20 was previously made up of 19 countries and the European Union, with its members representing around 85 per cent of the world’s GDP, more than 75 per cent of world trade and around two thirds of the world’s population.
O.Económico
