Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Sunday for the African Union (AU), which collectively had a $3 trillion GDP last year, to be made a G20 member, while also pitching his country as the solution to supply chain woes ahead of the bloc's summit in New Delhi next month.
"We have invited the African Union with a vision to give permanent membership," Modi said at B20, a business forum and prelude to the September 9-10 G20 summit.
In December, President of the United States Joe Biden said he wanted the African Union "to join the G20 as a permanent member", adding that it had "been a long time in coming, but it's going to come".
Headquartered in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, the AU at full strength has 55 members, but five nations, ruled by military leaders, are currently suspended.
In addition, Modi said that India was the "solution" to creating an "efficient and trusted global supply chain" following disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic, with New Delhi working to bolster manufacturing to compete with China.
"The world before COVID-19 and after COVID-19 has changed a lot – the world cannot view the global supply chain as before," the prime minister noted, adding "that is why today when the world is grappling with this question, I want to assure that the solution to this problem is India."
Relations between the world's two most populous nations nosedived after a deadly Himalayan border clash that killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops in 2020.
Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a rare face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of BRICS Summit, which took place on August 22-24 in South Africa, with Beijing saying they held "candid and in-depth" talks to ease tensions along their disputed frontier.