Johannesburg, Sep 10 (PTI) African leaders have welcomed the unanimous resolution of the G20 to confess the African Union as its everlasting member, with most hailing it as a chance for the large and resource-rich continent to additional its agenda on the worldwide stage.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, because the host of the G20 Summit in New Delhi, introduced the inclusion of the African Union (AU) as a everlasting member of the grouping.

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“Honoured to welcome the African Union as a permanent member of the G20 Family. This will strengthen the G20 and also strengthen the voice of the Global South,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated on Saturday as he embraced Comoros President Azali Assoumani, who can also be the Chairperson of the African Union, and invited him to affix the proceedings on the summit in New Delhi.

African leaders affirmed Modi’s view of their reactions to how the inclusion of Africa because the twenty first member of the G20, which the AU had been requesting for a number of years now, would increase the continent’s efforts to have a more practical voice in addressing international challenges.

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Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the AU Commission, which is the AU’s secretariat and undertakes the day-to-day actions of the Union, welcomed the bloc’s entry into the G20 as a full member.

“This membership, for which we have long been advocating, will provide a propitious framework for amplifying advocacy in favour of the Continent and its effective contribution to meeting global challenges,” he wrote on X, previously often known as Twitter.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the earlier chair of the AU, was among the many first African leaders to share the choice introduced by Modi.

“We are delighted that the #G20 has accepted the @AfricanUnion as a member of the #G20. Global reconstruction in the wake of the #COVID19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to accelerate the transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient, sustainable societies,” Ramaphosa stated in a publish on X.

“Developing economies are bearing the brunt of climate change, despite carrying the least responsibility for this crisis. As African and other developing economy countries, we face the task of meeting our climate commitments in the midst of significant developmental challenges like poverty, inequality and unemployment,” Ramaphosa added.

Ramaphosa stated that local weather change, environmental degradation, unsustainable consumption and manufacturing and useful resource shortage are challenges that may solely be addressed collectively and with quite a lot of solidarity.

“South Africa calls for an enhanced and expanded Global Partnership for Sustainable Development. This must be supported by the concrete policies and actions outlined in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development,” Ramaphosa stated.

Kenya’s President Willaim Ruto additionally welcomed the African Union’s inclusion within the G20.

Ruto stated the participation of the AU in G20 would give the African continent a better voice, visibility, and affect on the worldwide stage.

“This move is seen as an opportunity to advance the common interests of the continent. (It) fits perfectly with the resolutions of the just-concluded Africa Climate Summit, including the reform of international financial institutions and multilateral development banks,” Ruto stated.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi hailed the admission of the African Union (AU) as a full member of G20.

In a press release issued by the Egyptian presidency, Al-Sisi stated this was “a step in the right direction that offers an opportunity to set the continent’s priorities on the international agenda.”

Senegalese President Macky Sall, who was the 2022 president of the AU, had actively pushed the agenda to incorporate the AU in G20.

“By creating the G20 in 1999, the G7 international locations recognised, within the wake of the rising monetary market crises of the Nineteen Nineties, that inadequate participation of growing international locations in discussions on international financial points posed an elevated risk to international monetary stability,’ Sall wrote earlier within the French each day Le Monde.

The G20, based in 1999 in response to international financial crises, had till now solely granted observer standing to the AU.

Following its admission, the AU, a continental physique of 55 member states, now has the identical standing because the European Union – the one regional bloc with full membership. Collectively, African Union member states have a GDP of almost USD 3 trillion and a inhabitants of round 1.4 billion.

The African Union (AU) is a continental physique consisting of the 55 member states that make up the international locations of the African Continent. It was formally launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, 1963-1999).

US President Joe Biden, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are amongst these attending the two-day G20 Summit in India.

The chiefs of many main international our bodies such because the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Health Organisation are additionally collaborating within the convention.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff might not have modified or edited the content material physique)