South Africa praises India for G20 summit organisation and inclusion of Global South’s voice

“We think it augurs very well with respect to how the global financial architecture gets shaped as well as how the global sort of governance processes are approached. They will be approached now with the inclusion of the African continent, which remains an integral part of the global economy. It was always a miss that you could have such forums being hosted and conducted at the exclusion of a continent of more than 1.4 billion people,” Magwenya said.

Asked whether India was the only nation that can be a Global South leader, he said, “I think let us disabuse ourselves of this notion that one country is going to emerge as the leader of the Global South. What is important here is that the Global South has a voice in multilateral platforms that are shaping not only the future of the world but are shaping global financial architecture that are going to shape global governance. This is an important step towards realising that.”

“That’s why we should focus ourselves not on the issues like who is the leader of Global South, what is important here is the collective efforts that we have seen coming from all BRICS member states…,” Magwenya said.

“The collective efforts of both India and China have played [a role] in ensuring that you have a summit of this nature, that is inclusive. It is the same level of efforts and cooperation that we saw in the lead-up to the BRICS summit with respect to a number of issues that had to be managed to build enough to the Summit,” he added.

For a #G20, which is more inclusive and more vocal for Global South!

PM @narendramodi warmly invites President @_AfricanUnion & Comoros Azali Assoumani to join other G20 leaders as African Union becomes a permanent member of the G20.

A key outcome of #G20India. pic.twitter.com/ScLTGkQ4G1

— G20 India (@g20org) September 9, 2023

“There was a great deal of cooperation between India and China as well as with South Africa. So, this notion that there is going to be a competition over who leads the Global South is something that you need to disabuse ourselves of. Instead, rather look at what sort of principles guide Global Southern engagement with the rest of the world and what those principles mean for the benefits of the many people who have been excluded from this process,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the G20 Leaders’ Summit approved India’s proposal of including the African Union, a body of 55 countries, into the bloc.