2023-05-02 15:01:14
South Africa holds the rotating presidency of the BRICS this year and will host the annual BRICS leaders’ summit in August. The British media broke the news that the South African authorities had privately discouraged Russian President Vladimir Putin from attending the meeting and instead participated via videoconference in order to avoid forcing South Africa to arrest Putin due to the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.
Attending the BRICS summit with the leaders of South Africa, China, India and Brazil would be a major diplomatic achievement for Putin and his first major foreign trip since ordering the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. Earlier, South African Ambassador to China Xie Shengwen claimed that Putin had been invited to attend, and also said that “South Africa does not see any reason to prevent the leaders of the BRICS countries from attending the meeting.”
The British “Sunday Times” quoted South African government sources on April 30 as saying that a special government committee set up by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa concluded that if Putin set foot on South African soil, the country would be There was no choice but to arrest him.
2020 The International Criminal Court (ICC), established in accordance with the Rome Statute and located in The Hague, the Netherlands, aims to prosecute and sanction heinous crimes: genocide, violations of humanity and war crimes. 123 countries around the world have signed and passed the statute, including South Africa .
Ramaphosa said on April 25 that the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa, has decided to ask the government to withdraw from the ICC. However, the President’s Office later clarified that this was due to a communication error by the African National Congress and that South Africa did not intend to withdraw from the ICC.
A South African government official told the Sunday Times that because South Africa had ratified the Rome Statute, it was obliged to comply with its decisions, including arrest warrants for suspected war criminals. “If Putin came here, we would have to arrest him,” he said.
South African authorities are still negotiating with Russia, while the Kremlin has not commented on how Putin plans to attend the BRICS summit, the report said. Free Times 0502
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