Russian President Prepares to Visit an ICC Member State, What Will Happen?

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to pay an official visit to Mongolia next week despite the country being a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Mongolia early next week. (Source: Reuters)

According to the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin arrived in the capital Ulaanbaatar on September 3 at the invitation of Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh. He will attend the ceremony marking the 85th anniversary of the joint victory of Soviet and Mongolian forces over the Japanese on the Khalkhin Gol River.

The Mongolian Foreign Ministry also announced the visit on its website, saying the Russian leader will meet with the country's Prime Minister and Parliament Speaker.

It will be President Putin’s first trip to an ICC member state since the court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader in March last year for the mass deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories. Under the ICC’s Rome Statute, member states are obliged to act on an ICC arrest warrant if the subject is on their territory.

Moscow said it was not concerned about the possibility of Mr Putin being arrested in Mongolia.

“There is nothing to worry about; we have a great dialogue with our friends from Mongolia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on August 30. “Every aspect of the visit is being carefully prepared.”

Meanwhile, according to a statement issued the same day by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, the Ukrainian government has called on Mongolia to carry out the ICC arrest warrant for President Putin during this trip.

Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Ukrainian parliament, suggested that Kiev should start negotiations with Ulaanbaatar to convince it to carry out the arrest warrant.

The ICC, based in The Hague, has 124 members worldwide. Russia and the United States are not ICC members.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/tong-thong-nga-chuan-bi-tham-mot-quoc-gia-thanh-vien-icc-dieu-gi-se-xay-ra-284616.html