File – Presidents of Russia Vladimir Putin and South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa. – Europa Press/Contact/Kremlin Pool – Archive
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MADRID, June 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –
South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, at a meeting with her BRICS colleagues, has confirmed the invitation to the five heads of state to attend the regional group summit in August, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite the international arrest warrant against him.
This year’s summit – August 22-24 in Johannesburg – is marked by the war in Ukraine and its most immediate consequences, such as the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Putin, which has put him in a difficult situation for the South African authorities who are rushing to take legal action to protect them legally in order to circumvent the Court’s international mandate.
At that meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov emphasized the BRICS as “an organization based on the principles of equality, mutual respect, consensus, non-interference and strict observance of the UN Charter”.
On the eve of this meeting, the country’s main highways are adorned with billboards funded by Avaaz – a US-based civil organization – calling on South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to arrest his Russian counterpart. , as reported by News24.
Since the invasion began, South Africa has consistently defended its impartiality, abstaining on numerous occasions when voting on United Nations resolutions condemning Russia’s actions, a position similar to Brazil’s. Both are part of the BRICS regional group, which also includes India and Russia.
The South African government plans to submit a bill to Parliament this month that would seek to circumvent the obligation to comply with international arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), amid speculation about the possibility that Putin may or may not have been arrested. He decides to attend the next meeting in August in the African country.
It is not the first time that South Africa has failed to meet its obligations to the International Criminal Court, after the country faced international criticism in 2015 for refusing to arrest then-Sudanese President Omar Hasan al-Bashir, whom the court also indicted war crimes.