Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that “The European Union plans to take advantage of the absence of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin from this week’s Group of 20 to step up its outreach to nations of the so-called Global South, through a high-level meeting with African leaders on the summit’s sidelines.” In particular, a “mini-summit” is allegedly planned between the African and EU leaders that’ll attend this weekend’s summit, but closer AU-EU ties aren’t at the expense of the Sino–Russo Entente.
No country or group thereof opposes the proposal to make the AU a permanent member of the G20 like the EU presently is. In fact, this development would align with everyone’s goal of giving the Global South a greater voice in International Relations, which can then help ensure that the interests of developing countries are better met. While those who are critical of the West might suspect that this “mini-summit” could see the EU try to turn the AU against the Entente, there’s no credible reason for concern.
The precedent established by last month’s Jeddah talks whereby a similar Western effort was made to turn the Global South against Russia strongly suggests that all such attempts will fail. Furthermore, BRICS’ historic expansion several weeks later during its latest summit gives African countries better negotiating leverage with the West since there’s finally a viable alternative. They no longer have to accept whatever’s offered by the West due to an absence of choice like shortly after the Old Cold War.
The global systemic transition to multipolarity is irreversible, which the reportedly planned “mini-summit” also confirms since it shows that the EU finally recognizes the need to ramp up its engagement with the Global South and begin treating it more as an equal. To be sure, the West probably won’t do this on the same level as the Entente and other independent centers of influence like India, but it’ll still likely be better than the grossly lopsided approach that they’ve hitherto applied.
Africa as a whole can capitalize on this by bargaining for better deals from the West, which many of its countries already count as among their top trade and investment partners, otherwise they can seek what’s needed from the Entente, India, and others if the West still doesn’t give them a fair offer. At best, a new era of Western engagement with Africa is dawning, while the worst that could happen is that non-Western countries one-up the West by giving Africa the fair deals that the West might still refuse.
Either way, the emerging dynamics are arguably to Africa’s advantage in all respects, and they don’t have anything to do with the Russian and Chinese leaders skipping next weekend’s G20. Even if they attended, the “mini-summit” would probably still take place, plus the AU would likely still join the G20 as a permanent member. Only Western propagandists or those who lack an understanding of these dynamics would spin closer AU-EU ties in a zero-sum way.
