But as Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India announced on Saturday that the G20 had invited the African Union to become a member of the grouping ÔÇö becoming the second regional bloc included, after the European Union ÔÇö the Global South seems to be on the advance. Its frustrations and ideas around flaws in great-power politics, while still coalescing, are already altering global debate.

ÔÇ£These countries are not thinking about ÔÇÿsouthern solidarityÔÇÖ ÔÇö they are just pursuing their interests,ÔÇØ said Sarang Shidore, director of the Global South program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington think tank. ÔÇ£And as they do that, it adds up to more than the sum of their parts.ÔÇØ

What unifies the Global South ÔÇö a term coined in 1969 by an American activist writing about the Vietnam War and now used to describe a diverse group of more than 100 countries from Saudi Arabia to Guatemala ÔÇö is a sense that its own priorities have been sidelined in global discussions.

At a time when India has the worldÔÇÖs fifth-largest economy, when economic growth in Vietnam and Senegal is outpacing that of much of Europe, many Global South countries are asking with a louder voice: Where are our interests represented?

Seeing a multipolar world already in bloom, they have rejected a return to the Cold War model of choosing a side between capitalists (the United States) and communists (China). They have also ignored and protested U.S.-led sanctions against Russia for its aggression in Ukraine, drawing attention instead to rising food prices and to long-term problems like climate change that wealthier countries do more to cause and less to ameliorate.

In January, India hosted a virtual Voice of Global South Summit as its G20 presidency began. Last month, some of these countries gathered in South Africa for the BRICS summit, where China and India both presented themselves as Global South leaders while the United States was largely absent.

Professor Shidore said these kinds of alternative gatherings would probably grow, both challenging Western leadership and adding new policies to the global mix.

ÔÇ£These forums matter,ÔÇØ he said. ÔÇ£They create vehicles for like-minded countries to put forward different ideas.ÔÇØ