https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / News / All News RSS ← Back
Africa
Africa
africa
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Article Enquiry

Putin arrest warrant prompts South Africa to weigh moving Brics Summit

Close

Embed Video

Putin arrest warrant prompts South Africa to weigh moving Brics Summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin

1st June 2023

By: Bloomberg

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

South Africa is considering switching the venue of an upcoming summit of Brics leaders to another country, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would resolve its dilemma over whether to execute an international arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The government is considering asking China to host the meeting of heads of State, or alternatively neighboring Mozambique, the people said, asking not to be identified because discussions about the matter are private and no decision has been taken yet. Department of International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor’s spokesperson, Lunga Ngqengelele, said that as things stand, the summit will be held in Gauteng province, where the commercial hub of Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria, are situated.

Advertisement

“As far as we are aware, we have announced the summit venue as Gauteng, South Africa,” he said. “That is what we know as of today.”

South Africa has invited Putin, along with the leaders of Brazil, India and China, to the August 22 to 24 summit. Because South Africa is a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it would be obliged to execute an arrest warrant for Putin that the tribunal issued earlier this year if he travels to the country — an eventuality it’s intent on avoiding.

Advertisement

Neither China nor Mozambique are parties to the Rome Statute that established the ICC. Mozambique is unlikely to be a suitable venue because the country lacks the capacity to host an event on the scale of a Brics summit, one of the people said.

The South African government previously drew international criticism in 2015, when it refused to execute an ICC arrest warrant for then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who had been indicted for war crimes and genocide, while he was attending a meeting of African leaders in Johannesburg. South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that the government had acted unlawfully and the ICC found that it had failed to failed to comply with its international obligations.

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options
Free daily email newsletter Register Now