The Presidency confirmed Russia's President Vladimir Putin won't attend the Brics summit in SA. Picture: Sergei CHIRIKOV / POOL / AFP
President Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending the Brics summit in South Africa in August.
Ramaphosa confirmed South Africa’s readiness to host the 15th Summit of Brics nations. It will be the first Brics Summit to be hosted in person since the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent global restrictions.
Ramaphosa’s spokeperson Vincent Magwenya said the summit will be attended by the leaders of Brazil, India, China and South Africa.
“By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the summit but the Russian Federation will be represented by Foreign Minister Mr Sergey Lavrov.
“In due course, a comprehensive statement on the substantive issues to be covered at the summit and other related foreign policy matters will be issued,” Magwenya said.
Magwenya said Ramaphosa was confident the summit will be a success and called on South Africa to extend the necessary hospitality to delegates.
The confirmation of Putin not travelling to South Africa comes as the Democratic Alliance (DA) was headed to court on Friday to compel the government to execute an arrest warrant for the Russian president.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Putin in March, accusing him of war crimes relating to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine since February last year.
On Tuesday, Ramaposa’s confidential affidavit revealed that arresting Putin would be a declaration of war with Russia if he travelled to South Africa for the Brics summit in August.
The president also told the High Court in Gauteng that South Africa does not have the capacity nor appetite to wage war with Russia and Putin.
The court on Tuesday ordered Ramaphosa to make public his answering affidavit on the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) application to force government to arrest Putin.
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