At ‘Cape Town Conversation’, Geopolitical expert Velina Tchakarova says India can be the adequate leader of the Global South…reports Asian Lite News
India can be a “very adequate leader” of the Global South as the country has “already been a global power,” Geopolitical expert Velina Tchakarova said here on Sunday.
After addressing the second day of the ‘Cape Town Conversation’ on Sunday, she said, “I think that India can be a very adequate leader of the Global South. It could be an adequate leader because it has suffered a lot in the past, but it has already been a global power.”
“So in a sense, I think that a lot of countries representing the Global South, from Latin America to Africa and to the Asian continent, will accept leadership coming from India,” she added.
She further said, ” I think that India itself is right now dealing more or less with itself because India is on the rise. India is en route to becoming one of the key global players.”
She further explained that this means that India has to find its own position in the world. “It will be different, I argue, from the one during the Cold War when it was a leader of the non-alignment movement. So this time, I think that India doesn’t have the luxury of being just non-aligned…”
Tchakarova said that this kind of leadership will be the “most authentic that the Global South will accept because they need another narrative…”
She also stressed that India keeps its promises.
She said, “There is a balance, a kind of fairer presentation of the Global South, so we see India keeping its promises because India announced that it wants to be an advocate of the Global South, of seven billion people around the world…”
Meanwhile, she also highlighted the upcoming COP28 meeting in the UAE, stressing that it is a “very important thing for the region. We know for a fact that several of the countries in the region are very open to the idea of transitioning. And these are fossil fuel powerhouses. We talk about the UAE. We talk about Saudi Arabia…”
She further said that these are the countries that have been invited to BRICS, adding that BRICS will expand next year.
“It will turn into BRICS Plus. And it’s going to probably speculate that it’s going to turn into the next commodities powerhouse, including fossil fuels because we know for a fact that countries like China and India will still rely on fossil fuels next to increasing their share of renewables for the sake of their economic growth,” she said.
XXX
AU’s big step
XXX
Meanwhile, Director General at the Research and Information System (RIS) for Developing Countries Sachin Chaturvedi has said the African Union (AU) joining the G20 can change the larger international architecture for Global South.
“We are taking the idea of the #GlobalSouth forward–in terms of how we look at this engagement and the concept of the #AfricanUnion joining the #G20 table, and how the performance and larger international architecture for the Global South can change,” the Think20 India Core Group member said while addressing the Cape Town Conversation event.
He was speaking at the session “Time for Africa: AU in the G20”.
Chaturvedi said that roughly two-thirds of the world’s population and 75 per cent of global trade were covered by the G20. With the inclusion of the African Union, “we have 77 per cent of the population, 88 per cent of GDP and 78 per cent of global trade.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his opening remarks at the 18th G20 Leaders’ Summit, invited the African Union, represented by Chairperson Azali Assoumani, to take a seat at the table of G20 leaders as a permanent member.
“With everyone’s approval, I request the AU head to take his seat as a permanent G20 member,” Modi said in his address.
Following PM Modi’s announcement, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar accompanied the President of the Union of Comoros and Chairperson of the African Union (AU), Azali Assoumani as he took his seat among world leaders.
African Union is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The move to include the African Union in the G20 grouping was proposed by PM Modi earlier this June.
The RIS Director General, Chaturvedi said: “Africa is bearing a disproportionate burden of climate change. The African Union’s preparedness is also relevant here. How do we bring in coherence and experiences as compared to what we have seen in the past?”
Meanwhile, the African Union Commission’s former commissioner for human resources, science and technology, Sarah Agbor said that with the G20, “as we move from India to Brazil to South Africa, we have consecutive Global South presidencies. There are advantages to the African Union’s presence. The AU needs to take responsibility as Africans first and determine what it needs to do in the spirit of Ubuntu as it joins the G20. The G20 will give us opportunities to fulfil our own focus.” (ANI)
ALSO READ-Xi lays out pitch for new world order
