G20 Summit: How diplomacy of Modi's 'Bharat' pulled off African Union's inclusion

The geopolitical ripples from the gavel hammered by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi to announce the inclusion of African Union in Group of 20 nations held particular significance for 55 African nations that potentially transformed G20 into G21 on September 9, 2023. 

Hours before the unanimous adoption of New Delhi leaders' declaration, in his opening speech, Modi invited the chair of the African Union, Azali Assoumani, to take his seat as a permanent member of the league of world's wealthiest nations as other leaders applauded and looked on. 

Hailing it as a step towards "collaborative future" and G20's "collective commitment to global progress", Modi cheered the African Union's inclusion to the G20 as a move towards "a brighter future for the Global South."

The African Union is a continental body consisting of 55 member states.

Up until G20 Bali summit in 2022, the African Union had been a guest invitee to one of the world’s most powerful geo-economic bodies. 

Amid calls for equitable representation for the countries of Global South, the African Union, however, continues to be a guest invitee in other major global organisations, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

"It gives a fresh win to the idea of reformed and inclusive multilateralism. Just as India has actively supported the idea of bringing AU into G20, the world will some day soon recognise that India and Africa's representative states should also be included in the UN Security Council," said Rajiv Bhatia, a former Indian ambassador and Distinguished Fellow at Mumbai-based Gateway House.

The expansion of G20 shows a larger 'desirability for inclusive multilateralism' in global governance bodies, he pointed out.

India has been campaigning to amend the UN Charter to create additional permanent seats at the UN Security Council.

Since 2005, India is part of G-4, a political cooperative alliance comprising Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan, who support each other's bids for permanent seats on the UNSC while calling for equitable representation and multilateral and global governance bodies. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping's absence was widely deemed as a snub to India's G20 stewardship and a sign of geopolitical fissures preventing a joint declaration to prevail. 

But New Delhi's diplomats proved skeptics wrong by preceding the adoption of New Delhi leaders' declaration with African Union's inclusion in the G20. 

Experts say that China did not want to be a spoilsport just for the sake of it, and that while credit goes to India for pulling through African Union's successful inclusion, the unanimity of the decision implies that China also assented to the bloc's admission into G20.

"With other countries accepting most of the logic of what India was proposing, China would have been termed as a spoiler," Harsh Pant, the Vice President of Studies and Foreign Policy at New Delhi-headquartered Observer Research Foundation (ORF) told WION's Heena Sharma on September 10. 

"I don't think China wanted to be out of the tent simply for the sake of it," he added. 

According to Rajiv Bhatia, who also served as Director General of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) from 2012–2015, if it wasn't for India, the initiative to include African Union in G20 would have fallen flat. 

"The credit would nevertheless go to India because India started the entire process and carried it forward till the end. And therefore, you know, Africans fruitfully appreciate that without India's and Prime Minister Modi's steadfast support, the initiative would have fallen flat as it did last year during Indonesia's presidency." he said.

"So now there is a big chance for the next two presidencies; Brazil and South Africa to build on this development and ensure that Africa's key concerns are built into G20 agenda," Bhatia added.

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