South Africa considers asking China to host BRICS summit because of Putin

South Africa is considering moving the upcoming BRICS leaders' summit to another country, Bloomberg reported on June 1, citing people familiar with the matter.

The move is expected to help President Cyril Ramaphosa's administration resolve South Africa's dilemma over whether to execute an international arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The South African government is considering asking China or neighboring Mozambique to host the BRICS Heads of State meeting, Bloomberg News reported.

Lunga Ngqengelele, spokesman for South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, said the summit is expected to be held in Gauteng province, home to the commercial hub of Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria.

“As far as we know, we have announced the location of the Summit as Gauteng, South Africa,” Ngqengelele said. “That is what we know as of today.”

Alternatives

South Africa has invited Mr Putin, along with the leaders of Brazil, India and China, to attend the BRICS Summit, scheduled for August 22-24.

Because South Africa is a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it would be obliged to execute the arrest warrant issued by the ICC in March for Mr Putin if the Russian leader visited South Africa, a situation Africa’s richest country is keen to avoid.

World - South Africa considers asking China to host BRICS Summit because of Mr. Putin — Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 2018 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg. Photo: IOL

Neither China nor Mozambique are parties to the Rome Statute that established the ICC. Therefore, these countries are not obliged to comply with the arrest warrant issued by the ICC for the Russian President.

Mozambique does not seem like a suitable venue as the country is not capable of hosting an event on the scale of the BRICS Summit, a source told Bloomberg.

The possibility of China being considered as a possible venue for the BRICS Summit was reported by Reuters earlier on June 1.

The South African government is still considering various legal options on how to handle Putin’s visit, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor told reporters at a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers in Cape Town on June 1. President Ramaphosa will announce a “final decision” once those options have been evaluated, Pandor said.

But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on June 1 that information that the BRICS summit would be transferred to China from South Africa was fake, Interfax reported.

Earlier, the Kremlin announced on May 30 that Russia would participate in the BRICS Summit at an “appropriate level”.

Geopolitical tensions

BRICS is a group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, acting as a counterweight to the G7 (France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United States and Japan).

Mr Putin's planned visit has raised concerns among investors that South Africa's close ties with Russia threaten its relations with some of its biggest trading partners, including the United States.

The US ambassador to South Africa last month accused Pretoria of contradicting its own “non-aligned position” on the Russia-Ukraine conflict by supplying arms to Moscow. The South African government has denied the accusation.

Geopolitical tensions have added to concerns about the impact on South Africa's economic outlook as daily power outages and logistical constraints are hampering exports, with the rand falling to consecutive record lows over the past month.

The South African government previously came under international criticism in 2015 when it refused to execute an ICC arrest warrant for then-Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, who was indicted for war crimes and genocide, while he was attending a meeting of African leaders in Johannesburg.

Back then, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the South African Government had acted unlawfully and the ICC found that South Africa had failed to comply with its international obligations .

Minh Duc (According to Bloomberg, Reuters)

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