G20 welcomes African Union as summit kicks off
New Dehli, The Gulf Observer: The African Union gets warmly welcomed into the G20, as the summit gets under way in New Delhi. The leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) advanced and emerging economic powers are meeting in New Delhi on Saturday and Sunday, with host nation India searching for international consensus despite deep geopolitical divisions over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, among others, are attending the summit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending, however, and has sent Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov instead. Chinese President Xi Jinping is being represented by Premier Li Qiang.
While the summit has started on a high note with the inclusion of the AU, the traditional final joint declaration, usually signed off by all the participating nations, might not be possible this time round due to stark differences over the war in Ukraine.
