South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) as Pretoria considers switching the venue of a BRICS summit to avoid having to execute an international arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin if he attends.
Ramaphosa held talks with Putin on Wednesday to discuss preparations for the August gathering of heads of state from the five-member bloc, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“The president will make another phone call to the president of China, President Xi Jinping” this week, and would call Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi “in due course,” South African Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters on Thursday after a Cabinet meeting.
Photo: AFP
However, plans to hold the summit in Johannesburg remain unchanged, she said.
South Africa’s preparations for hosting the summit were upended when the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March, alleging responsibility for war crimes in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As a signatory to the court, the South African government would be obliged to detain Putin if he attends the BRICS gathering.
The prospect of Putin going to South Africa heightened investors’ concern that its close ties to Moscow threaten its relations with some of its biggest trading partners, including the US.
US Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety last month accused Pretoria of contradicting its neutral stance on the war in Ukraine by supplying weapons to Russia, an allegation the government denied.
The geopolitical tensions have added to worries about the effect on South Africa’s economic outlook from daily blackouts and logistical constraints that are hampering exports, with the rand falling to record lows last month. The currency has pared some of those losses this month.
An interministerial committee led by South African Vice President Paul Mashatile that is looking into the repercussions of a Putin visit met this week to finalize a report on the government’s options, a person familiar with its deliberations said, asking not to be identified because the information is not public.
Legal opinions sought by the government did not identify any potential loopholes around the ICC warrant, they said.
South African Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana urged officials at the meeting to deal with the matter urgently to calm the markets, and is in favor of the BRICS summit moving to China, the person said.
China is not a member of the ICC, so Putin could travel there without fear of arrest.
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang (秦剛) told South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor in a telephone call this month that his nation is prepared to support South Africa in hosting a successful BRICS summit.
Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) met with South African Minister of Police Bheki Cele in Beijing on Thursday, Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
China is ready to work with South Africa to strengthen security at the BRICS summit and elsewhere, and push for the development of a comprehensive strategic partnership between the two nations, it cited Wang as saying.
South Africa’s government drew international criticism in 2015 when it refused to execute an ICC arrest warrant for then-Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who had been indicted for war crimes and genocide, while he was attending a meeting of African leaders in Johannesburg.
The South African Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the government had acted unlawfully, and the ICC said that it failed to comply with its international obligations.
South Africa and five other African nations last month proposed an initiative to bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Ramaphosa intends to travel to Ukraine and Russia to understand the preconditions for getting them to the negotiating table, Ntshavheni said.
Pretoria would be willing to hold a peace summit between officials from the two countries, including their presidents, she said.
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