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Powerful quake in Morocco kills more than 2,000 people and damages historic buildings in Marrakech
A rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco, sending people racing from their beds into the streets and toppling buildings in mountainous villages and ancient cities not built to withstand such force. More than 2,000 people were killed, and the toll was expected to rise as rescuers struggled Saturday to reach hard-hit remote areas.
The magnitude 6.8 quake, the biggest to hit the North African country in 120 years, sent people fleeing their homes in terror and disbelief late Friday. One man said dishes and wall hangings began raining down, and people were knocked off their feet. The quake brought down walls made from stone and masonry, covering whole communities with rubble.
The devastation gripped each town along the High Atlas’ steep and winding switchbacks in similar ways: homes folding in on themselves and mothers and fathers crying as boys and helmet-clad police carried the dead through the streets.
Remote villages like those in the drought-stricken Ouargane Valley were largely cut off from the world when they lost electricity and cellphone service. By midday, people were outside mourning neighbors, surveying the damage on their camera phones and telling one another “May God save us.”
Hamid Idsalah, a 72-year-old mountain guide, said he and many others remained alive but had little future to look forward to. That was true in the short-term — with remnants of his kitchen reduced to dust — and in the long-term — where he and many others lack the financial means to rebound.
“I can’t reconstruct my home. I don’t know what I’ll do. Still, I’m alive, so I’ll wait,” he said as he walked through the desert oasis town overlooking red rock hills, packs of goats and a glistening salt lake. “I feel heartsick.”
In historic Marrakech, people could be seen on state TV clustering in the streets , afraid to go back inside buildings that might still be unstable. The city's famous Koutoubia Mosque, built in the 12th century, was damaged, but the extent was not immediately clear. Its 69-meter (226-foot) minaret is known as the “roof of Marrakech.” Moroccans also posted videos showing damage to parts of the famous red walls that surround the old city, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
At least 2,012 people died in the quake, mostly in Marrakech and five provinces near the epicenter, Morocco's Interior Ministry reported Saturday night. At least 2,059 more people were injured — 1,404 critically — the ministry said.
“The problem is that where destructive earthquakes are rare, buildings are simply not constructed robustly enough to cope with strong ground shaking, so many collapse, resulting in high casualties,” said Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London.
In a sign of the huge scale of the disaster, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI ordered the armed forces to mobilize specialized search and rescue teams and a surgical field hospital, according to a statement from the military.
The king said he would visit the hardest hit area Saturday, but despite an outpouring of offers of help from around the world, the Moroccan government had not formally asked for assistance, a step required before outside rescue crews could deploy.
The epicenter of Friday’s tremor was near the town of Ighil in Al Haouz Province, roughly 70 kilometers (44 miles) south of Marrakech. Al Haouz is known for scenic villages and valleys tucked in the High Atlas Mountains.
Read: PM Hasina expresses shock at earthquake devastation in Morocco
Police, emergency vehicles and people fleeing in shared taxis spent hours traversing unpaved roads through the High Atlas in stop-and-go traffic, often exiting their cars to help clear giant boulders from routes known to be rugged and difficult long before Friday’s earthquake. In Ijjoukak, a village in the area surrounding Toubkal, North Africa’s tallest peak, residents estimated nearly 200 buildings had been leveled.
Couch cushions, electric cords and grapes were strewn in giant piles of rubble alongside dead sheep, houseplants and doors wedged between boulders. Relatives from the town and those who had driven from major cities cried while they wondered who to call as they reckoned with the aftermath and a lack of food and water.
“It felt like a bomb went off,” 34-year-old Mohamed Messi said.
Morocco will observe three days of national mourning with flags at half-staff on all public facilities, the official news agency MAP reported.
World leaders offered to send in aid or rescue crews as condolences poured in from countries in Europe, the Middle East and the Group of 20 summit in India. The president of Turkey, which lost tens of thousands of people in a massive earthquake earlier this year, was among those proposing assistance. France and Germany, with large populations of people of Moroccan origin, also offered to help, and the leaders of both Ukraine and Russia expressed support for Moroccans.
Read: Powerful quake in Morocco kills more than 1,000 people and damages historic buildings in Marrakech
In an exceptional move, neighboring rival Algeria offered to open its airspace to allow eventual humanitarian aid or medical evacuation flights to travel to and from Morocco. Algeria closed the airspace when its government severed diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021 over a series of issues. The countries have a decadeslong dispute involving the territory of Western Sahara.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11:11 p.m. (22:11 GMT), with shaking that lasted several seconds. The U.S. agency reported a magnitude 4.9 aftershock hit 19 minutes later. The collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates occurred at a relatively shallow depth, which makes a quake more dangerous.
Earthquakes are relatively rare in North Africa. Lahcen Mhanni, Head of the Seismic Monitoring and Warning Department at the National Institute of Geophysics, told 2M TV that the earthquake was the strongest ever recorded in the region.
In 1960, a magnitude 5.8 tremor struck near the Moroccan city of Agadir and caused thousands of deaths. That quake prompted changes in construction rules in Morocco, but many buildings, especially rural homes, are not built to withstand such tremors.
Read more: Earthquake jolts Sylhet again
In 2004, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake near the Mediterranean coastal city of Al Hoceima left more than 600 dead.
Friday's quake was felt as far away as Portugal and Algeria, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere and Algeria's Civil Defense agency, which oversees emergency response
Biden and Modi to announce rail and shipping project to link India to Middle East and Europe
President Joe Biden and his allies plan to roll out plans on Saturday for a shipping corridor that would connect India with the Middle East and ultimately Europe — a possible game changer for global trade to be announced at the Group of 20 summit.
The proposed memorandum of understanding for a shipping and rail transportation corridor would include the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union and other countries in the G20, said Jon Finer, the president's deputy national security adviser.
Read: PM Hasina joins world leaders at G20 summit in New Delhi
Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plan to announce the project as part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment. The rail and shipping corridor would enable greater trade among the countries, including energy products. It could also be one of the more ambitious counters to China's own belt and road initiative that sought to connect more of the world to that country's economy.
Finer laid out three big rationales for the project in a call with reporters. He said first that the corridor would increase prosperity among the countries involved by increasing the flow of energy and digital communications. Second, the project would help to address the lack of infrastructure needed for growth in lower- and middle-income nations. And third, Finer said it could help “turn the temperature down” on “turbulence and insecurity” coming out of the Middle East.
Read: PM Hasina departs for New Delhi to attend G-20 summit
"We see this as having a high appeal to the countries involved, and also globally, because it is transparent, because it is a high standard, because it is not coercive," Finer said.
Finer also laid out Biden's agenda at the G20. The first session of the summit revolves around the theme of “One Earth.” The U.S. president plans to draw on the theme to push for more investments to address climate change, such as his own domestic incentives to encourage the use of renewable energy. Biden also wants to make the case that Russia's war in Ukraine is hurting many other nations, which have had to cope with greater food and energy costs as well as higher interest rate costs on their debt.
The second session is about “One Family.” Biden plans to use this portion to discuss his request to Congress for additional funding for the World Bank that could generate more than $25 billion in new lending for economic development.
Read: New Delhi got a makeover for the G20 summit. The city's poor say they were simply erased
The White House more broadly is trying to strengthen the G20 as an international forum, while Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have chosen not to attend. Still, China and Russia are represented at the summit and that could make it difficult for the G20 to produce a joint statement on the war in Ukraine, Finer said.
North Korea says it has deployed a new nuclear attack submarine to counter US naval power
North Korea said Friday it has christened a purported nuclear attack submarine it has been developing for years, a step leader Kim Jong Un described as crucial in his efforts to build a nuclear-armed navy to counter the United States and its Asian allies.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the vessel – named "Hero Kim Kun Ok" – is designed to launch tactical nuclear weapons from underwater but did not specify the number of missiles it could carry and fire.
In his speeches at the vessel's launching ceremony on Wednesday and an onboard inspection on Thursday, Kim expressed satisfaction the country has acquired its own nuclear attack submarine to counter the advanced naval assets of the U.S., KCNA said. In July, the U.S. docked a nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarine in South Korea for the first time since the 1980s.
Also read: North Korea's Kim orders sharp increase in missile production, days before US-South Korea drills
Kim said the country is also pursuing a nuclear-propelled submarine and plans to remodel its existing submarines and surface vessels so that they could handle nuclear weapons, describing the building of a nuclear-capable army as an "urgent task."
Based on Kim's comments and photos by North Korean state media, it's likely the new submarine was the same one Kim inspected in 2019 while it was under construction, which experts then assessed as an effort to convert an existing Romeo-class submarine. The submarine appears to have at least 10 launch tubes – four of them larger than the other six – that are possibly designed for missile launches.
North Korea previously had been testing a variety of missiles designed to be fired from submarines as it pursued the ability to conduct nuclear strikes from underwater, which in theory would bolster its deterrent by ensuring a survivable capability to retaliate after absorbing a nuclear attack on land.
Ballistic missile submarines would also add a maritime threat to the North's growing collection of solid-fuel weapons fired from land vehicles that are designed to overwhelm missile defenses in South Korea and Japan. The two key U.S. allies station tens of thousands of U.S. troops in the region.
Also read: North Korean leader Kim tours weapons factories and vows to advance his arms and his war readiness
It would take considerable time, resources and technological improvements for the heavily sanctioned nation to build a fleet of at least several submarines that could travel quietly in seas and reliably execute attacks, analysts say.
"This submarine, though heavily modified, is based on 1950s Soviet-origin technology and will have inherent limitations. Nevertheless, in terms of complicating the targeting challenges that the U.S. and its allies will face, the submarine will serve North Korea's purposes," said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Kim in recent weeks has been emphasizing the need to strengthen the country's navy, a focus that some analysts say could be driven by a desire to expand military cooperation with Russia, which has suggested the possibility of combined military exercises between the countries.
There's also speculation that Kim is preparing to visit Russia soon for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin for discussions on North Korean arms sales to refill Russian reserves drained by its war on Ukraine.
Also read: North Korea fires 2 short-range missiles into the sea as US docks nuclear submarine in South Korea
In exchange for providing Russia with artillery shells and other ammunition, North Korea could seek badly needed economic aid and also advanced weapons technologies, including those related to submarine-launched ballistic missile systems, intercontinental ballistic missiles and military spy satellites, analysts say.
But it's unclear whether Russia, which has always closely guarded its most important weapons technologies, even from key allies like China, would be willing to provide North Korea major technology transfers in exchange for what's likely to be limited war supplies sent over the countries' small land link.
"Russian assistance could be quite helpful here, but it's unclear if Moscow would be willing to share this sensitive technology," he said.
Kim insisted that the new submarine revealed this week would be just as "daunting" to his enemies as the nuclear-propelled submarine North Korea plans to acquire in the future.
"The nuclear attack submarine, for decades a symbol of aggression against our republic, has now become a symbol of our revolutionary power to strike fear into the hearts of our despicable enemies," KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
North Korea previously had only one known submarine capable of firing a missile, but that vessel has a single launch tube and analysts had considered it a test platform, rather than an active operational weapons system.
North Korea has an estimated about 70-90 diesel-powered submarines in one of the world's largest submarine fleets. But they are mostly aging ones capable of launching only torpedoes and mines, not missiles.
Kim Inae, a spokesperson at South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said during a briefing it was "deplorable" that North Korea was continuing to channel its limited resources into developing weapons while ignoring the struggles of its deeply impoverished people.
She didn't provide a specific answer when asked whether Seoul believes Russia might have provided technological assistance to the North on its new submarine.
KCNA said the launching of the submarine was timed for the 75th anniversary of the country's founding, which falls on Saturday and was to be marked by festivities, including a paramilitary parade.
ASEAN countries pledge to strengthen community-building, unity, centrality
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the ASEAN Community, its unity and centrality at the 43rd ASEAN Summit.
The three-day ASEAN Summit and related summits, under the theme "ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth," are scheduled to conclude here later on Thursday.
"We reviewed ASEAN's progress and reaffirmed our commitment to further strengthen ASEAN as an organization that is robust and agile, equipped with strengthened capacity and institutional effectiveness to address today's challenges and to remain relevant for its people, the region, and the world," said a Chairman's Statement of the 43rd ASEAN Summit issued on Wednesday.
Read: Apasen celebrates the golden jubilee of Bangladesh in UK
ASEAN countries also reaffirmed their shared commitment to maintaining and promoting peace, security and stability in the region, as well as to the peaceful resolution of disputes, the statement said.
They pledged to uphold regionalism and multilateralism and emphasized the importance of adhering to key principles, shared values, and norms enshrined in the United Nations (UN) Charter, the ASEAN Charter, and the Declaration on Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality, among others.
A series of documents have been adopted at the Summit, including the ASEAN Concord IV, ASEAN Leaders' Declaration on ASEAN as an Epicentrum of Growth.
The ASEAN Concord IV consolidates the bloc's continued efforts to ensure that ASEAN matters for the region and its people, and remains an epicenter of growth in the region and beyond.
ASEAN countries have vowed to further encourage their partners to engage in practical and tangible cooperation with the bloc in the four key areas of maritime cooperation, connectivity, UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030, and economy.
Read: An orangutan, chirping birds and a waterfall at ASEAN venue contrast to Jakarta's pollution outside
"We were pleased with the significant progress in the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement," the statement said, noting the urgent need to ensure effective implementation of RCEP to support the regional post-pandemic economic recovery.
ASEAN welcomed the establishment of the ASEAN Local Currency Transaction Task Force and the completion of the Roadmap on Regional Payment Connectivity for ASEAN, according to the statement.
ASEAN countries also noted the importance of sustainable tourism as a catalyst for environmental conservation and economic growth.
Read: ASEAN summit kicks off in Jakarta with focus on regional economic growth
The bloc members also agreed that the Philippines shall assume the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2026, the statement said.
Founded in 1967, ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
A unified strategy and more funding are urgently needed to end the crisis in Myanmar, UN chief says
The United Nations chief renewed an urgent call to the international community Thursday to seek a unified strategy to end the worsening crisis in Myanmar.
Secretary-General António Guterres said declining financial aid should be boosted to previous levels to enable the world body to respond to an "enormous tragedy." He said the situation in Myanmar has further deteriorated since he met with ASEAN leaders in a 2022 summit, and again called on the crisis-wracked country's military-installed government to immediately free all political prisoners and "open the door to a return to democratic rule."
Myanmar's army seized power on Feb. 1, 2021, from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, arresting her and top members of her governing National League for Democracy party, which had won a landslide victory for a new term in a November 2020 general election.
Also read: Want to begin Rohingya repatriation: Bangladesh conveys to Myanmar
Security forces suppressed widespread opposition to the military takeover with lethal force, killing thousands of civilians and arresting thousands of others who engaged in nonviolent protests. The savage crackdown triggered armed resistance in much of the impoverished country.
Guterres made the case for an international response in a news conference Thursday before joining the Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders' summit meetings in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Guterres also renewed his alarm over other issues being aggravated by nations butting heads. He warned that "there is a real risk of fragmentation — of a great fracture in world economic and financial systems with diverging strategies on technology and artificial intelligence and conflicting security frameworks."
"Our world is stretched to the breaking point by a cascade of crises: from the worsening climate emergency and escalating wars and conflicts, to growing poverty, widening inequalities and rising geopolitical tensions," Guterres said.
Also read: Those who claim situation in Myanmar 'not conducive' for repatriation never visited Rakhine : Chinese Ambassador Yao
In August 2017, longstanding discrimination against Rohingya Muslims in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, including denial of citizenship and other rights, boiled over when Myanmar's military launched what it called a clearance campaign in northern Rakhine state in response to attacks on police and border guards by a Rohingya militant group.
More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh, where they remain in camps, as Myanmar troops allegedly committed mass rapes and killings and burned thousands of homes.
The International Court of Justice, the U.N.'s top court, ordered Myanmar in January 2020 to do all it could to prevent genocide against the Rohingya.
"I remain deeply concerned about the worsening political, humanitarian, and human rights situation in Myanmar, including Rakhine State and the plight of the massive number of refugees living in desperate conditions," he said.
The U.N. chief expressed support to a five-point peace plan crafted by ASEAN leaders in 2021. It calls for an immediate end to violence in Myanmar and the start of dialogue among contending parties, including the ruling generals and Suu Kyi's camp.
ASEAN leaders, however, acknowledged in a joint statement that their strategy has failed to make any progress in Myanmar.
Also read: Help us return home in Myanmar, Rohingyas appeal
Despite such failure, the 10-nation bloc's leaders decided to stick with the plan and continue to prohibit Myanmar's generals and their appointed officials from attending ASEAN's high-level summits.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who flew to Jakarta to join the summit talks in lieu of President Joe Biden, told the ASEAN leaders Wednesday that Washington supports their peace plan.
"We have a shared commitment to international rules and norms and to our partnership on pressing national and regional issues such as the crisis in Myanmar," Harris said.
"The United States will continue to press the regime to end the horrific violence, to release all those unjustly detained and to reestablish Myanmar's inclusive democracy," Harris said.
Japan launches rocket carrying lunar lander and X-ray telescope to explore origins of universe
Japan launched a rocket Thursday carrying an X-ray telescope that will explore the origins of the universe as well as a small lunar lander.
The launch of the HII-A rocket from Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan was shown on live video by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, known as JAXA.
“We have a liftoff,” the narrator at JAXA said as the rocket flew up in a burst of smoke then flew over the Pacific.
Read: Direct flight from Bangladesh-Japan to deepen bilateral ties: State Minister for Civil Aviation
Thirteen minutes after the launch, the rocket put into orbit around Earth a satellite called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, or XRISM, which will measure the speed and makeup of what lies between galaxies.
That information helps in studying how celestial objects were formed, and hopefully can lead to solving the mystery of how the universe was created, JAXA says.
In cooperation with NASA, JAXA will look at the strength of light at different wavelengths, the temperature of things in space and their shapes and brightness.
David Alexander, director of the Rice Space Institute at Rice University, believes the mission is significant for delivering insight into the properties of hot plasma, or the superheated matter that makes up much of the universe.
Plasmas have the potential to be used in various ways, including healing wounds, making computer chips and cleaning the environment.
Read: Japan-Bangladesh business cooperation will grow further: speakers
“Understanding the distribution of this hot plasma in space and time, as well as its dynamical motion, will shed light on diverse phenomena such as black holes, the evolution of chemical elements in the universe and the formation of galactic clusters,” Alexander said.
Also aboard the latest Japanese rocket is the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, a lightweight lunar lander. The Smart Lander won’t make lunar orbit for three or four months after the launch and would likely attempt a landing early next year, according to the space agency.
The lander successfully separated from the rocket about 45 minutes after the launch and proceeded on its proper track to eventually land on the moon. JAXA workers applauded and bowed with each other from their observation facility.
JAXA is developing “pinpoint landing technology” to prepare for future lunar probes and landing on other planets. While landings now tend to be off by about 10 kilometers (6 miles) or more, the Smart Lander is designed to be more precise, within about 100 meters (330 feet) of the intended target, JAXA official Shinichiro Sakai told reporters ahead of the launch.
That allows the box-shaped gadgetry to find a safer place to land.
Read: Bangladesh hopes Japan will step up efforts to resolve Rohingya crisis: Shahriar Alam
The move comes at a time when the world is again turning to the challenge of going to the moon. Only four nations have successfully landed on the moon, the U.S., Russia, China and India.
Last month, India landed a spacecraft near the moon's south pole. That came just days after Russia failed in its attempt to return to the moon for the first time in nearly a half century. A Japanese private company, called ispace, crashed a lander in trying to land on the moon in April.
Japan’s space program has been marred by recent failures. In February, the H3 rocket launch was aborted for a glitch. Liftoff a month later succeeded, but the rocket had to be destroyed after its second stage failed to ignite properly.
Japan has started recruiting astronaut candidates for the first time in 13 years, making clear its ambitions to send a Japanese to the moon.
Going to the moon has fascinated humankind for decades. Under the U.S. Apollo program, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in 1969.
The last NASA human mission to the moon was in 1972, and the focus on sending humans to the moon appeared to wane, with missions being relegated to robots.
Everyone's talking about the Global South. But what is it?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says his country is "becoming the voice of the Global South," and that at the upcoming Group of 20 meetings being held in New Delhi, that voice will be heard.
At the August summit of the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — current chair South Africa declared its goal was to "advance the agenda of the Global South." And ahead of this May's summit of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies in Hiroshima, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stressed that the guest nations he had invited reflected the importance of the Global South.
The United Nations, the World Bank, U.S. President Joe Biden — everyone seems to be talking about the Global South these days. But what, exactly, is it?
What constitutes the Global South?
Despite how it sounds, it's not really a geographical term. Many countries included in the Global South are in the northern hemisphere, such as India, China and all of those in the northern half of Africa. Australia and New Zealand, both in the southern hemisphere, are not in the Global South.
Also read: India's rising geopolitical clout will be tested as it hosts the G20 summit
Most cite the so-called Brandt Line as the border; a squiggle across the globe running from the north of Mexico, across the top of Africa and the Middle East, looping around India and China before dropping down to encompass most of East Asia while avoiding Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The line was proposed by former German Chancellor Willy Brandt in the 1980s as a visual depiction of the north-south divide based upon per-capita GDP.
"The Global South is a geographical, geopolitical, historical and developmental concept, all at the same time — with exceptions," says Happymon Jacob, founder of the New Delhi-based Council for Strategic and Defense Research.
Which countries make up the Global South?
It's complicated, and often depends upon who is using the phrase.
Most commonly the term refers to the countries belonging to the Group of 77 at the United Nations, which, confusingly, is today actually a coalition of 134 countries. They're primarily considered developing countries, but also include China — about which there is some debate — and several wealthy Gulf states.
Though the G77 is a group at the U.N., the U.N. itself does not use that as its own definition, according to Rolf Traeger, who is with the U.N.'s trade and development office.
Also read: Modi and Xi Jinping agree on efforts to de-escalate border tensions
For the U.N., Global South is something of a shortcut to refer to developing countries in general, Traeger said. The U.N. currently lists 181 jurisdictions as developing countries or territories, and 67 jurisdictions as developed, he said.
In January, India's Modi hosted a virtual "Voice of the Global South Summit." It only included 125 countries, however, with India's regional rivals China and Pakistan among the notable absentees.
Some use different criteria, such as whether a country was previously colonized or whether a nation's per-capita GDP is above $15,000.
There is also a Global North, though the term is not regularly used. That is defined basically as not the Global South.
Should we use the term Global South?
The term Global South first appeared in the 1960s, but took time to gain traction.
Following the end of the Cold War, the terms First World, Second World and Third World started to fall out of favor, partly because with the fall of the Soviet Union the Second World ceased to exist, and also because the use of Third World came to be seen as derogatory.
No matter how you define it, the Global South accounts for such a vast majority of the world's population and broad swath of territory that some argue it's impossible and misleading to use the label.
How can countries like China and India, each with about 1.4 billion people and GDPs of about $18 trillion and $3.4 trillion respectively, be lumped together with the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, with a population a little over 300,000 and a GDP of $984 million, or the southern African nation of Zambia with 19 million people and a GDP of $30 billion?
Some also fret that China, which is assertively seeking to expand its global influence, could misuse the grouping to push its own agenda while giving the impression that it speaks for the majority of the world.
It has been speculated that that was behind the decision in May of the G7 nations — all Global North countries — to refrain from using "Global South" in their final summit communique, even though Kishida himself favors it.
"There is every danger that the Global South will end up becoming a weapon in the hands of revisionist states, like China, who would want to use the voice of the Global South to promote their great power interests," says Happymon Jacob.
Also read: Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are among 6 nations set to join the BRICS economic bloc
For his part, Modi has stressed the commonality of many issues facing the Global South, such as emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, rising debt, and food and energy security.
Ian Lesser, vice president of the German Marshall Fund and director of its Brussels office, notes that most discomfort with the term comes from Global North countries, and that "Global South" is widely used by the countries that make it up.
Even though the Global South is not a group with a monolithic view or widespread uniformity, he says what's important is that it reflects how the group sees itself.
Also read: BRICS: China, Russia and other emerging economies turn to main summit agenda in South Africa
"There is embedded in it a notion that not all strategies need to be made in the West," Lesser said.
"For some this is simply a way to assert a degree of historic independence and distance on key issues … and it is affecting the way Europe and the United States think about foreign policy, and the idea that we need to live in a world where not everyone will be on the same page with us on every issue."
India's rising geopolitical clout will be tested as it hosts the G20 summit
Ahead of India's hosting of the G20 summit of leading economies, its prime minister invited 125 mostly developing countries to a virtual meeting in January to signal New Delhi's intention to be their champion on the world stage.
As the leaders logged onto Zoom, Prime Minister Narendra Modi listed major challenges he said could be better addressed if developing countries had a bigger share in the emerging global order: the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, terrorism, the war in Ukraine.
"The world is in a state of crisis," Modi said. "Most of the global challenges have not been created by the Global South. But they affect us more."
India has pledged to amplify the voice of the so-called Global South — a wide of expanse of mostly developing countries, many of them former colonies, in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Oceania and the Caribbean.
Also read: India's prime minister uses the G20 summit to advertise his global reach and court voters at home
That pledge will be put to the test this week when world leaders arrive in New Delhi for this year's G20 summit, which begins Saturday. But India has promoted itself not only as a bridge to the developing world, but as a rising global player and — importantly — a mediator between the West and Russia.
Steering through fractures among the world's various blocs over Russia's war in Ukraine will be a "diplomatic high-wire act" for India, said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
None of the several G20 meetings this year have produced a communique, with Russia and China vetoing wording on the war that they once agreed to at last year's summit in Indonesia, when the summit statement noted that "most members strongly condemned" the invasion.
If leaders don't break this deadlock over the weekend, it could lead to the first time that the group's summit has ended without a communique, an unprecedented setback for the grouping, said John Kirton, director and founder of the G20 Research Group.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending and neither is China's leader Xi Jinping. Both are sending representatives.
Also read: Despite Xi's decision not to attend G20 in India, China says bilateral ties are 'generally stable'
Given New Delhi's historic ties with Moscow, its surging relationship with the West, and its hostility with Beijing over a years-long boundary dispute, Modi is in a diplomatically complicated position.
India has relied on Russia, its Cold War era ally, for military hardware for decades — and more recently, for record amounts of cheap oil. Despite India's refusal to directly condemn Russia over the war, the West and allies have courted the country aggressively as they bank on it as a bulwark against China's growing ambitions.
U.S. President Joe Biden pulled out the red carpet for Modi recently as the two signed a slate of deals, the Indian prime minister was a guest of honor at France's Bastille Day parade, and he was invited to attend the G7 summit a few months ago.
"Is Prime Minister Modi as skilled and as committed as President Widodo of Indonesia was last year to find a way to produce a communique? That's more of an open question given the progress of Russia's war against Ukraine," Kirton said.
As the split over Ukraine casts a shadow over the G20, India has focused on issues affecting developing countries, like food and fuel insecurity, rising inflation, debt and reforms of multilateral development banks. And in a bid to make the G20 more inclusive, Modi has proposed the African Union become a permanent member.
Also read: New Delhi got a makeover for the G20 summit. The city's poor say they were simply erased
Many G20 countries want to focus on calling out Russia, but for a number of developing nations dealing with local conflicts and extreme weather events, the Ukraine war is not as big a priority, said Happymon Jacob, founder of the New Delhi-based Council for Strategic and Defense Research.
"There's a feeling (in the Global South) that conflicts in other parts of the world, be it Afghanistan, Myanmar or Africa, are not taken as seriously by developed countries or in forums like the G20," Jacob said.
A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit in March suggested growing support for Moscow from the developing world, with the number of countries actively condemning Russia falling from 131 to 122.
"Some emerging economies have shifted to a neutral position," it noted.
The number of countries that lean toward Russia jumped from 29 a year ago to 35, it said. South Africa, Mali and Burkina Faso had moved into this group, highlighting Moscow's rising influence in Africa. China remained the most prominent of the countries leaning toward Russia.
As India progresses economically, it increasingly leans toward the West — which is welcomed by Western powers — but it also sees itself as a counterweight to China in vying for influence in the developing world with which it has historic ties, Jacob said.
India has identified with the Global South since its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, though Modi has renewed the emphasis on the phrase, using it frequently over the past year or two.
"India's trying to ensure that the Global South doesn't go into the Chinese camp," Jacob said.
Vaishnav said India is in "a geopolitical sweet spot." Its economy is among the fastest growing for major countries, it has a large working age population as the West ages, and its neutral stance on the Ukraine war has only boosted its diplomatic sway at the G20. The global spotlight could also help Modi's popularity ahead of a crucial general election next year.
On the other hand, unemployment remains a big concern as hundreds of millions struggle for work in the country's large but still widely unequal economy. And even as Modi touts democratic principles abroad, critics accuse his Hindu nationalist government of stifling dissent, stoking religious violence and weakening independent institutions at home.
So far, Modi has promoted a feeling that, "given the geopolitical landscape, the world needs India as much - if not more - than India needs the world," Vaishnav said.
"But the risk is that if we see domestic instability such that corporations and governments start to hedge their bets, and if India is no longer seen as delivering on its ability to counter China … there could be some diplomatic costs," he said.
India's prime minister uses the G20 summit to advertise his global reach and court voters at home
Major roads in New Delhi are teeming with giant posters and billboards announcing India's presidency of this week's summit of the Group of 20 nations. And one leader's picture — smiling benignly from every traffic circle — stands out from the rest: Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi is also on the front page of major newspapers, and Indian TV channels are flashing his picture, accompanied by the Hindi word "Vishwaguru" — a leader of the world. In public speeches, his ministers are touting him as a steward of a surging India.
It is an unabashed homage to the populist prime minister and staunch Hindu nationalist, who is celebrated by his supporters and by his party as someone who is leading a developing nation of more than 1.4 billion people to a bright new future.
Also read: Despite Xi's decision not to attend G20 in India, China says bilateral ties are 'generally stable'
But this advertising blitz also displays the personal ambitions of Modi, who in the past has used the optics of New Delhi's growing geopolitical clout and foreign policy triumphs to consolidate power. Experts say while India's presidency of the summit represents a moment of pride for the country, Modi's government has also used it to market the leader's image and elevate his party's prospects ahead of a national vote scheduled for next year.
"Modi is positioning himself as a global statesman, a global thought leader … and the voice of a rising India. And all of this, I believe, is designed to feed into the Modi personality cult, which is a very expertly created, very well marketed cult, designed to appeal to a demographic which will be very swayed by these promises of rising India," said Sagarika Ghose, a political analyst.
The Sept. 9-10 summit, which groups the world's 19 wealthiest countries plus the European Union, is particularly important for Modi ahead of the 2024 election, and a strong show will allow his ruling Hindu nationalist party to project power domestically.
Also read: China's Xi will skip G20 summit in India during a period of soured bilateral relations
Ahead of the summit, historical monuments, airports and major landmarks are projecting this year's G20 logo — an image of a globe inside a lotus, using the colors of the Indian flag. The opposition says it is no coincidence that the lotus is also the election symbol of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.
Indian officials have also conducted events showcasing India's contributions to the world, including yoga and a highly successful government-run digital transactions system. Schools have been told to hold quiz competitions regarding the G20. And Modi himself, during his periodic radio talk show called "Maan Ki Baat," or "Straight from the Heart," said "the month of September is going to witness the potential of India."
Meanwhile, his ministers have made it clear that the prime minister is to be credited for the summit.
"If G20 has come to the country during his (Modi's) time and it is completed with success, then he must get the credit," his powerful home minister, Amit Shah, told a wire service in February.
Also read: New Delhi got a makeover for the G20 summit. The city's poor say they were simply erased
The rotating presidency of the G20 is mostly symbolic and the summit's success often depends on a final communique. This time, however, none of the several meetings held in India has yet produced one, with deadlock persisting over wording on Russia's war in Ukraine.
Nonetheless, the Modi government has gone into high gear, promoting India as a bridge to the developing world and arguing it is well-placed to tackle issues of climate change, terrorism and the debt crisis. His administration is also highlighting India's position as a growing power courted by major Western countries, particularly after U.S. President Joe Biden's state visit in June.
Along the way, Modi's government has also presented him as the man responsible for India's economic successes, including its advancements in solar power, digital payments technology and its recent feat of making a successful uncrewed landing near the south polar region of the moon, which is seen by Indians as a major foreign policy triumph.
India's foreign policy has seen significant strides under Modi, but he remains a divisive figure at home, with critics calling him an enabler of assaults on India's democratic and religious freedoms and its independent institutions. And even though his government has managed to finely balance its position on Russia's war in Ukraine, the resurgent opposition says it has done very little to counter a belligerent China after a border dispute between the two Asian powers led to deadly clashes in 2020.
Still, Modi enjoys massive popularity among his supporters who see him as a leader taking India to the global stage.
"This is the first time the world has come to know that India can take a stand for herself. India will do what is in the interest of India," said Ajay Sahai Jasra, a media professional who is a Modi voter.
Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said "the transition that Modi is trying to effect is to turn India into a big and important country," marking an "important shift … in the nature of domestic politics in India."
"I do think there is a general sense among the populace that India is reclaiming an important leading role on the global stage," Vaishnav said.
Globally, though, this sentiment is quite nascent.
A recent Pew Research Centre survey of over 30,000 people across 24 countries, conducted between February and May, showed 40% saying they lacked confidence in Modi to do the right thing in world affairs, while 37% were confident that he would.
Ghose, the political analyst, said the G20 publicity is also ignoring much deeper problems India is facing under Modi, "like backsliding of democracy, restrictions on human rights activists, the jailing of dissenting voices and the muzzling of the media."
Yet, the summit will be beneficial for Modi, she said.
"He will be rubbing shoulders with President Joe Biden. He will be in the company of other global leaders. I think it will help him going forward into the elections of 2024," Ghose said.
Despite Xi's decision not to attend G20 in India, China says bilateral ties are 'generally stable'
Despite Chinese President Xi Jinping's decision not to attend this week's Group of 20 summit in India, Beijing says that relations between the two nuclear-armed Asian giants remain “generally stable.”
China announced on Monday that Premier Li Qiang, who took office just this spring, would represent China at the Sept. 9-10 meeting in New Delhi.
Read: China's Xi will skip G20 summit in India during a period of soured bilateral relations
Relations between China and India remain frosty over their border dispute that led to a clash three years ago in which 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed. It has turned into a long-running standoff in the rugged mountainous area, where each side has stationed tens of thousands of military personnel backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets.
Without mentioning the dispute, or the reason for Xi's decision not to attend, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Chinese leaders have “always supported India’s hosting of this year’s summit and are ready to work with all parties to make the G20 summit a success.”
Read: New Delhi got a makeover for the G20 summit. The city's poor say they were simply erased
“At present, China-India relations remain generally stable, and dialogue and communication have been maintained at all levels,” Mao told reporters at a daily briefing.
“We are willing to work with the Indian side to promote greater and continuous development of China-India relations,” she said.
Frictions between the two have also arisen over trade, technology and investment and India’s growing strategic ties with China’s main rival, the United States. Both India and China have expelled the other’s journalists and once-plentiful educational exchanges have all but dried up.
India recently overtook China as the world’s most populous nation and the two are rivals in computers, steel-making, space exploration and other high-tech fields.
Seeking to tamp down the possibility of future clashes, Chinese and Indian military commanders met last month and pledged to “maintain the peace and tranquility” along the Line of Actual Control that separates Chinese- and Indian-held territories from Ladakh in the west to India’s eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety.
Read: ASEAN summit kicks off in Jakarta with focus on regional economic growth
By not attending the G20, Xi passes on an opportunity for an interaction with President Joe Biden at a time when relations between their two countries have hit a historical low. China also appears to be hinting that Xi will not attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting in San Francisco in November.