Despite an international arrest warrant, Russian President Vladimir Putin is invited to the emerging countries’ summit in South Africa in August.
The five BRICS heads of state namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa have been invited to the August 22-24 summit in Johannesburg, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandora said at a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers on Thursday.
This year’s summit is politically particularly explosive: In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin.
South Africa, a signatory to the Statute of the International Criminal Court, would be obliged to arrest the Russian President upon his entry into South Africa. So far, South Africa has not expressed a clear position on what to do if Putin actually shows up in person.
South Africa was already under criticism in 2015 when it refused to arrest then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and extradite him to the ICC.
During preparatory talks on Thursday in Cape Town, the foreign ministers of the emerging countries wanted to discuss better cooperation among themselves and with the G20.
Another priority on the ministerial agenda is whether to include countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and 17 others that have applied to join the BRICS.
In addition, the ministers wanted to discuss issues such as global poverty and inequality. However, decisions are only made at the top.
(With inputs from agencies)
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