President Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed South Africa’s readiness to host the historic 15th Summit of BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
According to the statement issued by the Presidency on Wednesday, stated that the Summit will be attended by the leaders of Brazil, India, China and South Africa.
The Presidency revealed that by mutual agreement, Vladimir Putin of Russia will not attend the Summit but the Russian Federation will be represented by Foreign Minister, Mr Sergey Lavrov.
It was reported on Tuesday that South Africa’s President, Ramaphosa has said that arresting Vladimir Putin, if he chooses to attend a summit in Johannesburg next month, would be a declaration of war against Russia.
The Russian President has been invited to attend a meeting of Brics countries while it is the target of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting children from Ukraine.
South Africa faced a dilemma in hosting the summit because, as a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it would theoretically be required to arrest Putin for alleged war crimes if he were to attend.
The Opposition, Democratic Alliance (DA) in the country, has gone to court to try to force the authorities in South Africa, an ICC member, to carry out the arrest.
The Democratic Alliance leader, John Steenhuisen said on Tuesday that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s affidavit on the execution of an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin was farcical.
He added that Ramaphosa’s claim that government feared a declaration of war if Putin was arrested while attending the BRICS summit next month was flimsy.
Ramaphosa, in recent months and weeks held number of consultations on the hosting of the Summit. The President’s most recent consultation in this regard took place last night, Tuesday, 18 July 2023, at the BRICS Political Party Dialogue in Gauteng.
The President who is confident that the Summit will be a success, called on the nation to extend necessary hospitality to the many delegates who will arrive from various parts of the continent and the globe.
Meanwhile, the Presidency stated further that 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.
While this will be the first BRICS Summit to be hosted August in person since emergence of COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent global restrictions.
