Indian Prime Minister Supports African Membership in G20

Verona ( IT ) [ENA] Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called for the African Union (AU) to become a member of the G20, the club of the world’s richest countries to meet in India in September. “We invited the African Union to become a permanent member of the G20” Modi said at the B20 Business Forum, which was held ahead of the September 9-10 G20 Summit. South Africa, is currently the only African country a member of the G20.

which brings together 19 of the world’s largest economies plus the European Union, or 85% of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population. Based in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, the AU has 55 member countries, totaling $3 trillion in GDP. The Indian Prime Minister also said that his country, a major rival of China, had the capacity to make up for the supply problems caused by the Covid crisis. India is the “solution” to create “a reliable global supply chain” because “the world has changed a lot after Covid-19,” Modi said. On Thursday at the BRICS (Major Emerging Countries Group) summit in South Africa, Mr. Modi met face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a rare event.

Relations between India and China have fragmented since clashes in 2020 at their border in the disputed Himalayas, killing at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese. In a rare face-to-face meeting, Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the recent BRICS summit in South Africa in what the Chinese Foreign Ministry described as a "frank and in-depth exchange of views".