Holding the next Brics summit in South Africa is an unexpected headache for Vladimir Putin and the rest of the members of this club of emerging countries, who have adopted an equidistant position regarding the war in Ukraine. A position that for the United States and the EU is closer to Moscow than to Kyiv.
Coinciding yesterday with the meeting of foreign ministers of the bloc in Cape Town, the debate on a hypothetical arrest of the Russian president in case he travels to South Africa, a country that recognizes the authority of the International Criminal Court (ICC), an organization that maintains an arrest warrant against Putin for war crimes.
The party that leads the opposition in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance (AD), asked the court on Wednesday to clarify whether the country's authorities have the obligation to arrest the Russian president if he finally attends the summit, scheduled between 22 and 24 of August. The opposition formation said in a statement that it had made the decision after the government led by Cyril Ramaphosa had "ignored" on "twice" his request for clarification on whether the police have the obligation to arrest the Russian leader, by virtue of membership of the ICC.
AD's action also came after South Africa's foreign ministry on Monday issued a diplomatic notice to grant immunity for members of delegations attending the summit. After the controversy unleashed, the Foreign Affairs spokesman, Clayson Monyela, tweeted that "these immunities do not annul any judicial order that an international court may have issued against any attendee at the event" and assured that it is a "standard procedure for organizing conferences and international summits” carried out by all countries.
In this context, the Bloomberg agency reported yesterday that the Pretoria executive had sounded out China and neighboring Mozambique – neither of which has signed the CPI – to occasionally host the summit. However, the South African Foreign Minister, Naledi Pandor, denied the information and confirmed that the meeting will be held in Johannesburg, although initially it had to take place in Durban.
The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, who had visited Mozambique on Wednesday, where Russia promised to send military equipment to fight jihadist terrorism, also denied that the summit was going to be held in China.
Hours before, Pandor had referred to a possible arrest of Putin and had shown his concern. "Our government is currently analyzing what are the legal options regarding this matter," said the South African minister, who confirmed that all the heads of state of the Brics, made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, who will be joined by leaders of invited countries such as Egypt, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia.
In 2015, the South African government was already in the eye of the hurricane and received international criticism for refusing to arrest the then president of Sudan, Omar al Bashir - accused of war crimes by the ICC - when he attended an African summit. For that dispute, the Supreme Court of South Africa ruled that the government had broken the law.
In their meeting yesterday, the Brics foreign ministers set the objectives of the August summit to strengthen the bloc to promote a new world order against the hegemony of the West; advance in the expansion of the group with some of the twelve candidates, among which also include Argentina, Mexico, Nigeria or Algeria; or study the implementation of a single commercial exchange currency for the bloc.
"The countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa are strengthening their positions and are showing their willingness to uphold their national interests and play an equal role in global processes," Lavrov said in Cape Town.
