Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his opening remarks at the summit, invited the AU, represented by the current Chairperson and President of Comoros Azali Assoumani, to take a seat at the table of G20 leaders as a permanent member.
"We welcome the African Union as a permanent member of the G20 and strongly believe that inclusion of the African Union into the G20 will significantly contribute to addressing the global challenges of our time," noted the Prime Minister.
The move was proposed by PM Modi in June and followed up by letters to all other leaders of G20 member countries proposing full membership to the AU at the New Delhi summit. The path had been smoothened with US President Joe Biden calling for full membership for the AU at the US-Africa Summit in December last year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Saturday the G20 had received consensus on leaders' declaration. “There is good news, with everyone's cooperation, consensus has been reached on the New Delhi G20 Leadership Declaration,’’ PM Modi announced on the opening day of the G20 Summit to applause from the other leaders and delegates.
The unanimous adoption of New Delhi G20 Leadership Declaration means a diplomatic victory for India which had been trying hard to avoid a split in the G20 over the issue of including references to Ukraine in the Joint Declaration which runs into 38 pages and spans about 75 paragraphs.
“I recommend that this Declaration be adopted,’’ said the PM. There was no elaboration on the language in the relevant paras on Ukraine that led to a change in the rigid stance adopted by both protagonists for the last year.
The Tribune had reported on Friday that the Declaration was "almost ready’’ and all countries could agree on its full text.
“India's expectation is that all G20 members will move towards a consensus and we are hopeful of a consensus on the communique," said Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra had said on Friday. “Our New Delhi Leaders' Declaration is almost ready, and only after it is accepted by the leaders, we will be able to talk about the actual achievements of this declaration," India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant had noted
Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister opened his address by expressing condolences to the people affected by the earthquake in Morocco. The focus of the PM’s speech was the need for G20 to find solutions to age-old challenges facing humanity. “And, therefore, we have to move forward with a human-centric approach while fulfilling our every responsibility. After Covid, a major crisis in the world has come from the lack of trust. The war has deepened this trust deficit. When we can defeat Covid, we can also overcome this crisis of mutual trust.
“India's G-20 Presidency has become a symbol of inclusion, "Sabka Saath", both within and outside the country. In India, it became the People's G-20. Crores of Indians joined it. More than 200 meetings were held in more than 60 cities of the country,’’ observed the PM.
“It is in that spirit that India had proposed the African Union be given permanent membership of the G-20,’’ he observed.The prominent issues that figure in the Joint Declaration being decided on at the summit include more loans to developing reform of international debt architecture, regulations on cryptocurrency and the impact of geopolitics on food and energy security.India’s G20 Presidency stands out as the most ambitious in terms of the substantive agenda and outcomes.
With a total of 112 outcomes and presidency documents, India has more than tripled the substantive work from the previous presidencies.
As G20 leaders reached a consensus on the New Delhi Declaration, India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant flagged the historical and path-breaking G20 Declaration with 100% consensus on all developmental and geo-political issues.
”The new geopolitical paras are a powerful call for the Planet, people, peace and prosperity in today’s words and demonstrate PM Narendra Modi’s leadership.”
A comparison of recent G20 Presidency outcomes places India on the top.
Compared to India’s 112 outcomes and presidency documents, other G20 Presidencies fared as follows—Indonesia 2022 -- 50 outcomes and documents; 65 in Italy 2021; 30 in Saudi Arabia 2020; 29 in Japan 2019; 33 in Argentina 2018 and 22 in Germany 2017.
Besides, India has ensured its footprint on G20 Outcomes by christening them after Indian landmarks and locations such as Deccan High-Level Principles on Food Security and Nutrition; Chennai High-Level Principles for Blue and Ocean Economy; Goa Roadmap for Tourism; Gandhinagar Implementation Roadmap for land restoration; and Jaipur Call for Action to enhance MSMEs access to information.
