Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet decided whether he will travel to the BRICS summit (formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) scheduled for next August in South Africa, a member country of the International Criminal Court . In the event that the Russian president traveled to the summit, the Pretoria government would be forced to cooperate in his arrest, given the international arrest warrant issued against him by the agency.
"There is still no decision (on this)," said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov, at his daily press conference.
South Africa's Minister for International Relations, Naledi Pandor, confirmed on Thursday that her country had invited the Russian president to participate in the summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies, despite the arrest warrant. "President Putin is one of the BRICS leaders and is invited to the summit, although I think the ICC (arrest) warrant is a cause for concern," she said.
As a member state of the ICC, South Africa, which will host the bloc's heads of state and government summit in Durban that August, is obliged to cooperate in Putin's arrest, after that international court of justice issued the last week an arrest warrant against the Russian president for alleged war crimes.
In this regard, the South African government is receiving legal advice on how to handle the arrest warrant. “We are waiting for a renewed legal opinion on the matter,” Pandor said this Friday during a radio interview. “We are concerned about the situation of the Ukrainian people. What we would like to do is be in a position where we can continue to engage with both countries to persuade them towards peace,” he assured.
South Africa has taken a neutral stance on the Ukraine war, a position that has drawn criticism from some of the nation's biggest trading partners, including the US and the European Union, along with some of the biggest banks. of the nation
Russia previously trusted that South Africa would ensure effective work for all countries and their representatives, including the leaders, at the summit. For his part, the vice president of the Russian Security Council and former president of the country, Dmitry Medvedev, warned on Thursday that the eventual arrest of Putin by the ICC order would amount to a declaration of war on Russia.
South Africa is unlikely to arrest any visiting heads of state, two Foreign Ministry officials who declined to be named told Bloomberg. The government and the ruling African National Congress are considering all options in an effort to prevent the order from being carried out, they said.
South Africa already drew international criticism in 2015 when it refused to execute an ICC arrest warrant for then-Sudanese President Omar al Bashir while he was attending an African Union summit in the country. Former South African President Jacob Zuma proposed withdrawing from the ICC in 2016, though that plan was later dropped.
The South African government is scheduled to receive a delegation of Russian ministers next week for a meeting of the two nations' Joint Intergovernmental Committee on Trade and Economic Cooperation.
