‘Invite to African Union made G20 more inclusive’

India has made G20 a more inclusive forum during its presidency by inviting the African Union to join the group, thus providing a platform for the voice of Africans to reach the world, prime minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.

Speaking during the 104th episode of Maan Ki Baat, his monthly radio talk, Modi termed the Indian presidency of the G20 as “people’s presidency”.

He said that the country is fully prepared to host the G20 leaders’ summit in September that will see 40 heads of states and government as well as several global organizations for the “biggest participation ever in the history of the G-20 Summit”.

“Among the eleven engagement groups of G20, academia, civil society, youth, women, our parliamentarians, entrepreneurs and people associated with urban administration played an important role,” Modi said.

“In one way or the other, more than 15 million people are associated with the events being organized across the country regarding this,” he added.

Modi said India had moved away from holding big G20 events only in New Delhi and hosted several key events across other cities.

“About 200 meetings related to this were organized in 60 cities across the country,” Modi said.

“Wherever the G20 Delegates went, people warmly welcomed them. These delegates were very impressed, seeing the diversity of our country and our vibrant democracy. They also realized that there are so many possibilities in India,” he added.

The Prime Minister had earlier on Saturday met residents of Delhi ahead of the upcoming 9-10 September G20 summit in the national capital and urged all Delhi residents to help make it a success despite the inconvenience they might have to face.

“Delhi citizens have got more responsibility for G20...there will be so many guests coming...From 5-15 September, there will be a lot of inconveniences, I apologize for that in advance,” Modi said.

“These are our guests...traffic rules will be changed, we will be stopped from going to several places but some things are necessary...”, he had added.

The Indian G20 presidency’s main focus is to strengthen multilateral development banks (MDBs) to address mounting debt issues among developing economies.

Meanwhile, the priorities of the finance track of the G20 under the Indian presidency are strengthening international finance architecture, financing for global public goods, managing global debt and vulnerabilities, addressing macro economic impact of food and energy security, and financing sustainable and resilient cities of tomorrow.

Speaking on India’s Moon Mission, Modi said that Mission Chandrayaan has become a symbol of the spirit of New India, which wants to ensure victory, and also knows how to win in any situation.

“India and India’s Chandrayaan have proved that some suns of resolve rise on the moon,” he added.