President Cyril Ramaphosa will call Chinese President Xi Jinping this week as Pretoria tries to resolve its dilemma about Russian President Vladimir Putin entering South Africa to attend the BRICS Summit in August. Senior officials have told Daily Maverick that moving the summit is an option being considered to avoid Putin visiting South Africa. Ramaphosa spoke on the phone to Putin on Wednesday to discuss the African peace mission on the Russia-Ukraine war, the Russia-Africa Summit in St Petersburg in July, and the upcoming BRICS Summit in Johannesburg in August. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest in March, charging him with war crimes for his alleged complicity in abducting and deporting Ukrainian children to Russia. As a member of the ICC, South Africa would be obliged to arrest Putin if he travelled to South Africa for the BRICS Summit.
The South African government had previously sought a legal solution to allow it to host Putin while complying with its legal obligations to the ICC and its ICC Implementation Act. However, time is running out for South Africa to make the necessary amendments. Officials are now considering options to prevent Putin from visiting South Africa, such as holding the summit online. There were also rumblings of the conference being moved to another country during the BRICS foreign ministers meeting in Cape Town last week. An interministerial committee (IMC) headed by Deputy President Paul Mashatile met on Monday to discuss the options.
Ntshavheni said that as things stand, South Africa would still host the BRICS Summit, and no contrary decision had yet been made. If there are any changes from the work of the IMC, what they recommend, and a decision is taken, there will be an announcement. The BRICS Summit is taking place in South Africa, and no decision has been taken contrary to that. Western countries would be pleased if Putin did not visit South Africa for the summit. Still, some diplomats have suggested it would significantly blow South Africa’s international prestige. International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor continue her outreach to G7 governments to explain the African peace mission to Ukraine and Russia.
On Thursday, she had a 15-minute call with Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa, who expressed his respect for African leaders’ efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine. Japan’s position is that “Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is a clear violation of international law, and just and lasting peace in Ukraine cannot be achieved without the withdrawal of Russia from Ukraine”. The demand that Russia withdraw from Ukraine as the essential condition for peace appears to have been the same basic message that Pandor has been getting in her meetings or phone calls with other G7 foreign ministers.
