GNP per capita and importance

Something important I would like you to think about is that GNP per capita doesn't reflect the "importance" of a given nation. I know this is very arbitrary, but I bet most people would agree that France or Germany are way more important than Luxembourg. What are your picks for a given region of the world? Mines are as follows...

Europe: Germany, France and England
Asia: China, Japan and India
Africa: South Africa
Middle East: Israel and Egypt
Latin America: Mexico, Brazil and Argentina
North America: USA and Canada