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The High Commissioner of South Africa to India, Anil Sooklal, stated that the G20 Summit is important to South Africa because it is the only country from the continent to be part of the G20.
On being asked about South Africa hosting the G20 summit, Sooklal said that the Summit shows that South Africa is capable of global leadership. "It's the first time that the summit is being hosted by an African country. South Africa is the sole G20 member from Africa. Of course, you have the African Union there now, through the presidency of India in 2023, when the African Union was a full member. From a symbolic point of view, this is a very important event pertaining not just to South Africa, but the African continent, demonstrating that Africa is capable of providing global leadership," he said. Sooklal said that South Africa's theme builds on the priorities set forth by the previous presidencies of India, Indonesia and Brazil. "We put forward our theme and priorities, Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability, and this theme builds on the past three presidencies of global South countries, Indonesia, India and Brazil...The world is fracturing. It's important that we work together in terms of equality...We have identified certain key priorities, firstly, working towards inclusive economic growth, because post, the world continues to struggle. Secondly, inequality is on the rise, unfortunately," he said. Sooklal then said that food security and industrialisation are other factors that will be looked into. "Thirdly, looking at the question of employment, again, this is impacting especially on the poorer nations for various reasons. And finally, the issue of industrialisation is critical for the Global South. The second key priority is on food security. Now we have seen that food insecurity has become a major issue, especially for poorer nations, such as Africa," he said. Sooklal then said that AI and its umbrella- innovation, sustainability and data governance will also be deliberated upon, and the nations would try to reach a consensus. "Another key priority is AI and innovation for sustainability, including issues of data governance. Another factor, especially in Africa, is debt sustainability. There have been some positive outcomes on all of these issues, and we hope that when the leaders apply themselves to them, we will reach consensus on these key issues that impact all of us," he said. The G20 Leaders' Summit is scheduled to be held in South Africa later this month. (ANI)
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