The African Union joined the Group of 20 leading economies at its summit on Saturday, providing the continent with a stronger voice on the global stage.
The African Union joined the Group of 20 leading economies at its summit on Saturday, giving the continent more of a voice on the global stage, with host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying it turned the often divided bloc into the “people’s G20”.
Modi has painted the summit as India’s diplomatic coming of age and is pushing for his country, which wants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, to be seen as a voice of the Global South.
At full strength, the African Union has 55 members, but six junta-ruled nations are currently suspended. Collectively it has a GDP of $3 trillion with some 1.4 billion people.
As the G20, the grouping included 19 countries and the European Union, representing 85 percent of the world GDP, with South Africa its only member state from the continent.
It was conceived in the throes of the 2008 financial crisis as a way of managing the global economy, but finding consensus among members has been increasingly difficult in recent years.
Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP
