President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa will head to the G20 Summit this year with a call for the African Union to be a full member.
South Africa is currently the only African country that forms part of the G20. The summit will be held in Bali, Indonesia next month.
It takes part as countries around world suffer economic blows and in the midst of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking at Union Buildings in Pretoria, Ramaphosa says the countries at the 17th meeting of nations would look for solutions to the issues that affect their respective people.
He says, “It’s not only conflict between Russia and the Ukraine that is going to give rise to the challenges but many others. The world economy is weakening, inflation continues to rise in many countries and prices, cost of living is going up. So we will go there, pushing a very progressive agenda and we will also be going there to advocate for the acceptance of the AU as a member of the G20, like the EU is a member. We want the AU to be a member, we do not want South Africa to be the only African country that participates.”
Russia
In March it was announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin intended to attend a G20 Summit, following calls by some members for the country to be barred from the group.
Russia’s Ambassador in Jakarta, Lyudmila Vorobyova says, “Not only G20, many organisations are trying to expel Russia, but the reaction of the West is also absolutely disproportional.”
The United States and its Western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of 20 grouping of major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources involved in the discussions told Reuters. – Reuters
