South Africa will organize the next Brics summit in August, to which Vladimir Putin is invited, despite the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Russian head of state, its president confirmed this Sunday.
“We are advancing in the organization of the Brics summit and finalizing the discussions on the format,” Cyril Ramaphosa told the press, adding that this meeting, which in principle brings together South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Russia, will be will perform “physically”. “.
Will Putin be in Johannesburg?
He did not rule on the presence or not at the summit of Vladimir Putin, targeted since March by an order of the International Criminal Court for the war crime of “deportation” of Ukrainian children since the invasion of Ukraine, accusations that Moscow flatly rejects. .
South Africa currently chairs the BRICS, a group of five great emerging powers that wants to gain more influence in international institutions hitherto dominated by the United States and Europe. Their next summit, their fifteenth, is scheduled for August 22-24 at a convention center in Johannesburg.
“We are going to host this Brics summit physically, we are all committed to having a summit where we can look each other in the eye,” said Cyril Ramaphosa, who was questioned on the sidelines of a conference by his party at the ANC.
As a member of the ICC, South Africa is theoretically supposed to arrest the Russian president if he enters its territory. A serious diplomatic dilemma for Pretoria, which has refused to condemn Moscow since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Rumors spread by the South African media indicated that Pretoria was considering moving the summit to China to avoid having to arrest Vladimir Putin.
Source: BFM TV
