The BRICS group brings together the world’s largest emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa from August 22-24 in the African country
Sputnik – The Secretary-General of the ruling African National Congress, Fikil Mbalula, said on Sunday (16) that the South African government is still working on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s face-to-face participation in the BRICS summit in August.
“The government is working on the process of determining whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally attend the BRICS summit and we will let the government handle the matter and leave it in the competent hands of the president. [sul-africano, Cyril Ramaphosa]Mbalula said after the meeting of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress.
As a signatory to the ICC, the Secretary General of the ANC said to abide by the law, referring to the arrest warrant issued by the ICC against Putin. But he added that the government “is able to handle the matter and we left it in the competent hands.”
The BRICS group brings together the world’s largest emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
South Africa, which assumed the rotating presidency of the BRICS group in 2023, will host the 15th leaders’ summit in August. But in March, controversy over the event erupted after the International Criminal Court, of which South Africa is a member, issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president.
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Earlier in the week, Ramaphosa said that the BRICS summit will be held in person. At the same time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday (14) that the format of the BRICS summit has not been fully decided and discussions on this issue are still ongoing.
On Wednesday (12), South African Vice President Paul Machattel told the local Mail and Guardian newspaper that Moscow rejected South Africa’s proposal to send Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the summit instead of Putin. Machatel also expressed hope that a decision on this issue would be made before the Russia-Africa summit scheduled to be held in St. Petersburg at the end of July.
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