The African Union is to become a member of the G20, after been invited to join on 9 September 2023, at the group’s summit in India’s capital Delhi.

The African Union will represent 55 countries from across the continent at future G20 meetings.

The G20 – or Group of Twenty – is a club of countries that meets to discuss global economic and political issues.

The G20 members are the EU plus 19 nations: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the US.

Some countries which are members of the G20 also meet as the G7. These are the world’s seven leading industrialised countries.

The African Union was invited to be become a permanent G20 member at the Delhi summit. The organisation represents 55 African countries.

The group was founded in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis. It was designed to be a forum for finance ministers and officials to discuss ways to restore economic stability.

The first leaders’ summit was held in 2008 in response to that year’s global financial turmoil, to promote international cooperation.

The G20 has broadened its focus in recent years to include issues such as climate change and sustainable energy.

Every year, a different G20 member state takes over the presidency, and sets the agenda for the leaders’ summit.

A joint declaration from G20 members condemned”human suffering and adverse repercussions of the conflict in Ukraine on global food and energy security”, without directly criticising Russia.

The Ukrainian government said the declaration was “nothing to be proud of”, adding that a Ukrainian presence would have given participants a better understanding of the situation.

A new network of railways and shipping routes was announced by the US, India, Saudi Arabia and the EU, on the sidelines of the summit. It is designed to increase trade between South Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had wanted the summit to promote his country as a major global power, and himself as an important world leader, ahead of a general election due in spring 2024.

He took the lead in inviting the AU to become a permanent member to the G20.

Both Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping stayed away from the summit.

However, one-to-one meetings between leaders have often proved constructive.

G20 summits attract anti-globalisation protests.

India’s government ramped up security measures ahead of the Delhi event, closing roads around the venue, and deploying130,000 security officials across the city.

Delhi has a huge monkey population and authorities needed to stop the animals from disrupting the summit.