South Africa may opt out of hosting Brics summit over Putin arrest
South Africa is planning to abandon it's role as the host of this years Brics summit to avoid the possible arrest of the Russian president Vladimir Putin, who is currently wanted by the international criminal court on charges of war crimes.
On Saturday, South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, briefed Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, on the upcoming visit by African leaders to Russia and Ukraine in an attempt to end hostilities, reports The Guardian.
Although, China has it's own peace mission under way, South Africa with five other African states, is trying to garner support for a new peace plan. Ramaphosa has recruited Zambia, Senegal, Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Egypt to join his peace delegation.
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Pretoria, as a party to the Rome statute, the treaty underpinning the court, would be required to arrest Putin and then send him to The Hague for trial. Brazil, the fifth member of Brics is also a party to the court.
However, China and India, would not face the same obligation, leading some South African officials to suggest moving the summit to Beijing.
According to reports, Ukraine hopes to stage a peace conference in Denmark in July to capitalise on the proliferation of peace plans from the global south during which it would set out its terms for a settlement to the conflict.
The aspiration is that by then Ukraine's counteroffensive would have changed the dynamic of the war, and Kyiv hopes the global south will realise that Russia needs to leave Ukraine to avoid further bloodshed, says The Guardian.
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the Danish foreign minister, has already agreed to hosting such an event.
