New Delhi, 9 September 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Leaders of the 20 largest economies - minus China and Russia - opened their summit in the Indian capital on Saturday with the announcement that the African Union would be joining them as a permanent member of the group, marking a major promotion for the continent on the world stage.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is hosting the two-day gathering of rich and powerful nations in New Delhi, has projected himself as a champion of the Global South.

"In agreement with all of you, I would like to invite the chairperson of the African Union to take his seat as a permanent member of the G20," Modi said at the start of the meeting.

Comoros President Azali Assoumani, the current chair of the AU, walked up to Modi and hugged him. To date, the 55-member AU has only participated in G20 summits as a guest.

The only other bloc of countries participating in the G20 is the European Union, which is being represented in New Delhi by European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Yet whereas the EU is facing an ageing population and declining birthrates, the AU could be on the verge of becoming an economic powerhouse.

The AU represents the interests of around 1.3 billion people and has the youngest and fastest growing population in the world. According to estimates, Africa could have around 2.5 billion inhabitants by 2050. The EU has only about 450 million people.

But while the G20 found agreement on Africa, the geopolitical fallout of the war in Ukraine will make achieving consensus on other issues an uphill battle.

UN Secretary General António Guterres, on his arrival in India, compared the state of affairs to a "dysfunctional" family.

The traditional final joint declaration, or communiqué, usually signed off by all the participating nations, might not be possible due to stark differences over the 18-month-old war in Europe.

Western nations, which have strongly supported Ukraine while imposing massive sanctions on Russia, are facing an alliance of China and Russia in the G20 negotiations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending the summit however, and has sent Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov instead. Chinese President Xi Jinping is to be represented by Premier Li Qiang.

A senior US government official said hours before the start of the summit that there would be "challenges" in reaching an agreement on a joint final declaration.

Disagreements among members over key international issues, especially Russia's invasion of Ukraine, make "getting agreement on specific language" a challenge, the US official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

"This is always more challenging in this format than it is, for example, in the G7," the official said, referring to the smaller club of major democratic industrial powers, all of them US allies.

"The G20 is just a more diverse body with a wider range of views, particularly on some of the global issues - with Russia and Ukraine being high on that list."

Deals were still being forged, however.

The United States plans to launch a vast rail and shipping project with partners to facilitate trade from India to Europe via the Middle East.

The US, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the EU plan to adopt a corresponding declaration of intent for the project at the summit, the White House said.

The plan calls for "high quality investments in building sustainable infrastructure" that would fill a global gap and enable greater prosperity and better connectivity for key regions around the world, the White House said in a briefing.

The news portal Axios had previously reported that this was one of Washington's "key initiatives" aimed at containing China's influence in the Middle East.

With its vast "New Silk Road" strategy, Beijing is supporting infrastructure projects worldwide and has concluded numerous agreements with almost all Arab states.

Photo: Indian MFA