Devirupa Mitra 
New Delhi: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the African Union to take a seat as a permanent member at the start of the G20 summit in New Delhi, marking the first expansion of the group since its formation as a group of 20 major economies in 1999.
With a nameplate saying ‘Bharat’ rather than ‘India’ in front of his seat, Modi has further added fuel to the political debate that began after it emerged that the invitation for the G20 official dinner had gone on behalf of the ‘President of Bharat’.
As the two-day summit began, about one-fifth of the leadership of the G20 was absent, with the leaders of Mexico, Spain, Russia and China not in attendance.
The leaders of the G20 member countries, along with the special guests, disembarked from their vehicles and took a brief walk for a minute to receive a warm welcome from Modi, standing in front of a backdrop of the Konark Temple Wheel.
In his inaugural remarks, Modi said that there was agreement to India’s proposal that the African Union be given permanent membership. “With the consent of all of you, move ahead,” he said, as he rapped the gavel three times.
External affairs minister S. Jaishankar proceeded to escort the current chair of the African Union, President of Comoros Azali Assoumani, to the round table. Modi also got up to embrace Assoumani amidst applause from the leaders, before the latter took his seat.
The decision will certainly be touted by India as the biggest achievement of its G20 presidency till now, especially since there is uncertainty over whether a joint communique will be released at the end of the summit due to deeply polarised divisions over the Ukraine war.
The formation of G20 reflected concerns due to the Asian Economic Crisis, but it was based on the idea of diversifying the platform of the G7. Since the European Union was part of the G7, it was automatically made part of the G20 and was the only regional group to sit at the high table.
Senegal’s President Macky Sall made the first formal demand for the African regional group’s inclusion in G20 during his term as AU’s chair in July 2022. A month later, China had endorsed the call.
Indonesia, last year’s G20 chair, had also backed the move, but it didn’t figure on the agenda at the Bali summit in November 2022, which was overwhelmed by the geopolitical consequences of the Ukraine war.
However, the issue didn’t die off as the United States came on board and announced its support during the US-Africa summit in December last year. Soon, other countries like Japan, France and Germany were pledging their support.
In June this year, Modi wrote letters to his G20 counterparts to “propose that the African Union be given full membership at the upcoming Delhi Summit of G20, as requested by them”.
The lack of any public opposition was not surprising as all the major powers, from China to US, Japan, Russia and India, have a common policy of wooing the world’s largest regional bloc. While there may have been concerns that it could lead to similar demands from other regional groups to join the G20, they were not aired and the proposal gained momentum.