Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has written to G20 leaders urging that the African Union be granted full membership at the upcoming summit in New Delhi, local media has said, citing official sources.
Modi reportedly took a "bold step" to strengthen Africa's voice on the international stage and in shaping the future of "our common world," the media noted.
"PM Modi has written to his G20 counterparts to propose that the African Union be given full membership at the upcoming Delhi Summit, as requested by them," a source is quoted as saying, adding: "PM Modi has led from the front on this matter, which he strongly advocates and supports".
This will be the right step towards a just, fair, more inclusive and representative global architecture and governance, another source told the outlet.
Currently, the G20 has only one African country, South Africa. In addition to South Africa and India, the group includes Russia, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the US, the UK, Turkiye, Japan, as well as the EU.
The calls to grant the AU a permanent place at the table have been raised on the continent before.
Senegal’s President Macky Sall, ex-chair of the AU, proposed in July 2022 that the regional group should be included, saying that the absence of adequate representation from Africa could be detrimental to the G20.
"The most pressing issues — climate change, pandemics, security, and debt — are ones that both affect Africa and on which Africa is in a position to contribute to solutions. Such a gap in African representation can weaken the G-20’s credibility, traction, and representativeness," he remarked.
This year, the G20 also invited nine non-member "guest" countries, including Bangladesh, Singapore, Spain and Nigeria, as well as international organizations such as the UN, the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the IMF.
The African Union, which includes 55 African countries, was created in 2002 as the successor to the Organization of African Unity.