South African President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed on Sunday that the BRICS summit in August will be “face-to-face” despite the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is part of the group.
(RFI) The summit of BRICS, the group made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, “is going ahead and we are finalizing discussions on the format,” Ramaphosa told reporters.”We will have a face-to-face summit, we are all committed to having a summit where we can look out for each other,” he added.
He did not specify whether Putin, against whom an arrest warrant has been issued by the International Criminal Court, will attend or not. “We have not held a face-to-face summit for… at least three years. It will not be virtual,” the South African leader was content to declare.
As a member of the International Criminal Court, South Africa should theoretically detain the Russian president if he enters its territory. But rumors spread in local media that the South African government was considering moving the summit to China to avoid being put in the position of having to arrest Putin.
South Africa never condemned invasion of Ukraine
The country refused to condemn the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, saying it wanted to remain neutral and preferred dialogue to end the war. A traditional continental diplomatic power, South Africa advocates adopting this stance so it can “play a role in conflict resolution”, said Cyril Ramaphosa, who says he has met Putin several times.
South Africa hosted naval exercises with Russia and China off its coast in February, sparking “concern” from major Western powers about this rapprochement between Moscow and Pretoria.
South Africa has had close ties with Russia since the apartheid era, when the Kremlin backed Nelson Mandela and his party in the fight against the racist regime.
(With information from AFP)