Which of the following statements are correct about the composition of the G 20? 1. All G 7 countries are members of G 20 2. All BRICS countries are members of G 20 3. All ASEAN countries are members of G 20 4. All permanent members of Security Council are members of G 20 Select the answer using the code given below:
- (a)1, 2 and 3
- (b)2 and 4 only
- (c)1 and 4
- (d)2, 3 and 4
Correct — C, 1 and 4. The G7 members are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada, and every one of them is a G20 member, so statement 1 holds. The five permanent members of the Security Council are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China, and all five are G20 members, so statement 4 holds. Statement 3 is plainly false: Indonesia is the only member of ASEAN that belongs to the G20, and the ASEAN chair attends only as an invitee. Statement 2 was true while BRICS had five members, but the grouping took in Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE from January 2024, and none of those four is in the G20 — so by the time this paper was set the statement had stopped being true. Only one option carries 1 and 4 without carrying 2 or 3.
- (a)1, 2 and 3 — It carries statement 3, which fails on ASEAN. Of the ten ASEAN members only Indonesia sits in the G20; Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and the rest do not.
- (b)2 and 4 only — It drops the true statement about the G7 and keeps the BRICS statement, which the January 2024 expansion broke. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE joined BRICS and are outside the G20.
- (d)2, 3 and 4 — It carries both false statements at once. ASEAN is represented in the G20 only through Indonesia, and enlarged BRICS is no longer a subset of the G20.
The G20 was formed in 1999 as a finance ministers' forum and was raised to leaders' level in 2008. It has nineteen member countries plus the European Union, and the African Union was admitted as a full member at the New Delhi summit of September 2023. Membership was fixed early and has not otherwise changed, which is why the G20 can be treated as a stable list against which other groupings are tested.
The item is really asking which other groupings sit inside the G20. Two of them do — the G7 and the permanent five of the Security Council, since both are made up of large economies that were in the G20 from the start. ASEAN never did, because most of its members are small or middle-sized economies. BRICS did until very recently, and this is the statement that dates: the enlargement effective 1 January 2024 brought in members that are not in the G20, and Saudi Arabia, which is. A candidate who still carried the five-member BRICS list would have looked for an option reading 1, 2 and 4 — and finding none is itself the clue that statement 2 has gone stale.
- The G7 is the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada; all seven are G20 members.
- All five permanent members of the UN Security Council are G20 members.
- Indonesia is the only ASEAN member country in the G20.
- BRICS admitted Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE from January 2024; of these only Saudi Arabia is a G20 member.
- The African Union became a full member of the G20 at the New Delhi summit in September 2023.
Two accepted statements, and no option offers 1, 2 and 4 — which is the signal that the BRICS statement has been overtaken.
- Carrying the five-member BRICS list into a question written after January 2024.
- Assuming a regional grouping's members are all in the G20 because the grouping itself is invited.
- Forgetting that the European Union and the African Union are members in their own right.
Four subset claims about one membership list, with the trap sitting in the grouping whose membership changed most recently.
Which of the following sets of countries are all members of the G20?
- (a) Argentina, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey
- (b) Australia, Canada, Malaysia and New Zealand
- (c) Brazil, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam
- (d) Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea
Answer(a) Argentina, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey
The same membership list, tested by naming countries instead of groupings. Its wrong sets are built on Malaysia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Singapore — the same non-members that break the ASEAN claim here.
Which of the following are India's G20 priorities? 1. Green Development 2. Women-led Development 3. Climate Finance 4. Digital Public Infrastructure Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 1, 2 and 3 only
- (c) 3 and 4 only
- (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Answer(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
The agenda side of the same forum, from the year India held the presidency. Read together, the two items cover both what the G20 is made of and what it was working on.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following ASEAN member countries is also a member of the G20?
- (a)Thailand
- (b)Vietnam
- (c)Indonesia
- (d)Singapore
Answer(c) Indonesia — the only ASEAN member country in the G20.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The African Union was admitted as a full member of the G20 at the summit held in
- (a)Bali, 2022
- (b)New Delhi, 2023
- (c)Rio de Janeiro, 2024
- (d)Rome, 2021
Answer(b) New Delhi, 2023 — the African Union joined as a full member at the summit India hosted.