CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t attend the BRICS financial summit in Johannesburg subsequent month, the workplace of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa stated in a press release Wednesday.
The determination means South Africa won’t face the dilemma of whether or not it ought to perform an International Criminal Court arrest warrant in opposition to the Russian chief.
South Africa is a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC and would have been obliged below that to arrest Putin, though the nation had given robust hints that it could have doubtless not executed the arrest warrant.
But Wednesday’s announcement permits South Africa to keep away from the issue and comes after Ramaphosa spoke with Putin by phone in latest days.
The determination for Putin to not attend was by “mutual agreement,” Ramaphosa’s workplace stated. Russia will as a substitute be represented on the Aug 22-24 summit by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The BRICS financial bloc is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. South Africa had invited the leaders of the opposite 4 international locations to the summit earlier than Putin’s arrest warrant was issued by the ICC in March.
The announcement brings to an finish months of hypothesis over if Putin was going to journey to South Africa. Putin has not traveled to any nation that may be a signatory to the ICC treaty since he was indicted for battle crimes over the kidnapping of youngsters from Ukraine.
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