Russia has rejected South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s request that the Russian delegation to the BRICS summit in August be led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov instead of Vladimir Putin. This was stated by South African Vice President Paul Mashatile in an interview with the Mail & Guardian newspaper on July 14 (as quoted by RBC).
Recall that the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin. South Africa is bound by the Rome Statute and will have to arrest Putin if he comes to the republic, which is the organizer of the next BRICS summit.
As RBC wrote, earlier members of the South African government proposed three options for the participation of the Russian delegation. According to the first, Putin will be represented at the summit by the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to the second – Putin will participate in the meeting online, according to the third – China will be asked to host the meeting. India and Brazil rejected the option of moving the summit to China.
BRICS is an alliance of five states: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.
