New Delhi: With the negotiations over the phrasing of the Ukraine war in the draft declaration bogged down, all eyes are on the likely entry of the African Union into the G20, which will likely be perceived as the main deliverable from the two-day summit.Earlier on Wednesday, a European Union official had clearly said that India’s compromise text on Ukraine did not go far enough to be acceptable to the West. The remarks came almost at the end of four days of talks of G20 sherpas, attempting to find a compromise so that a joint statement – a Delhi Declaration – could be released at the end of the summit on September 10.With no compromise on the text, there will be a ‘Chair’s summary and Outcome document’, just like other G20 meetings held this year. These have the 20 members agreeing to all the clauses, except for one or two paragraphs in the geopolitical section related to Russia. The footnotes have lines which stated that China does not consider the forum as an appropriate platform to discuss geopolitical issues, with Russia echoing that it is not in conformity with the G20 mandate.With signs showing that this summit may be the first one to end without a joint statement, the probable invitation to the African Union will certainly be seen as the main achievement in Delhi.The first official confirmation of AU’s membership came from Russia, with their G20 sherpa Svetlana Lukash telling a Russian media outlet that the outcome document will have provision for making the 55-member regional bloc as a full member.While AU’s chair, the president of Comoros, will be in Delhi as a special invitee, the regional bloc will become a full member only from next year’s summit to be hosted by Brazil. It will be the second regional bloc to join the G20 grouping after the European Union (EU).As The Wire noted, a rush to take credit for the inclusion of AU has already begun.On Thursday, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning claimed that China was the “first country that explicitly expressed its support for the African Union’s membership in the G20”.“China and the AU are important partners in building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future and safeguarding international fairness and justice. China supports the AU in playing a bigger role in global governance,” she said.In an article published in several newspapers across the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote, “Our presidency has not only seen the largest-ever participation from African countries but has also pushed for the inclusion of the African Union as a permanent member of the G20”.Besides South Africa and Comoros, India has also invited the presidents of Egypt and Nigeria.Earlier, Russia’s Lukash had also claimed that Moscow had been one of the first countries to endorse AU’s entry into the G20.There has been declarations of support from nearly all quarters of the G20 membership for AU members. As an observer noted, it would have been difficult to put up any objection, especially since the Global South is being wooed by the West and China in the current polarised international environment.The only credible argument against AU’s entry is that it could lead to similar demand for other regional organisations, but as of now, no such opposition has emerged against the African Union’s candidacy.Senegal’s President Macky Sall, then AU chair, had suggested in July 2022 that the regional bloc should get a seat, underlining that absence of adequate representation from Africa could be detrimental to the G20. The only African country which is a member of G-20 is South Africa.Last year’s chair, Indonesia, had also called for the AU to be brought into the fold, but with Ukraine crowding out the agenda in 2022, there was not much progress on that front in Bali.China had endorsed the call for AU membership in August 2022. President Xi Jinping again stressed that China will work actively to support the AU’s full membership in the G20.A month after the Bali declaration did not take cognisance of AU’s candidature, the US championed the initiative at the US-Africa summit in December 2020.A week later, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also conveyed Japan’s support in a discussion with Senegalese President Macky Sall.As momentum grew for AU’s inclusion with public support from the US, France, and China, India joined the effort by circulating a letter to fellow G20 members proposing full membership for the regional organisation at the upcoming September summit in New Delhi.In June, Modi wrote to his G20 counterparts “to propose that the African Union be given full membership at the upcoming Delhi Summit of G20, as requested by them”.