BRICS ministers show their strength as Putin’s arrest warrant looms

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – BRICS foreign ministers on Thursday reaffirmed their bloc’s ambition to rival Western powers, but their talks in South Africa were overshadowed by questions about whether the Russian leader would be arrested if he attended a summit in August.

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said her country is examining options if Vladimir Putin, subject of an arrest warrant for war crimes issued by the International Criminal Court, attends the BRICS summit to be held in Johannesburg.

As a member of the International Criminal Court, South Africa would theoretically be required to arrest Putin, and Pandor was dogged by questions about that when it reached the first round of talks with representatives from Brazil, Russia, India and China.

“Our government is currently examining what the legal options are in this matter,” she told reporters.

“The answer is that the President (Cyril Ramaphosa) will indicate the final position of South Africa. As things stand, an invitation has been issued to all (BRICS) heads of state,” Pandor said.

Putin did not confirm his plans, with the Kremlin saying only that Russia would be involved at the “appropriate level”.

The International Criminal Court in March charged Putin with the war crime of forcibly deporting children from Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine. Moscow denies these allegations. South Africa invited Putin in January.

In public opening remarks before their private talks, the foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, and a deputy minister from China spoke in similar terms about their bloc’s aspiration to provide leadership in a multipolar world.

“change symbol”

“Our BRICS vision is for our partnership to provide global leadership in a world riven by competition, geopolitical tension, inequality and deteriorating global security,” Pandor said.

India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar spoke on the concentration of economic power which he said “leaves many nations at the mercy of a very few”, and on the need to reform global decision-making including the United Nations Security Council.

“Old ways cannot handle new situations. We are a symbol of change. We must act,” he said.

Russian Sergey Lavrov accused Western powers of using sanctions against his country and other countries as a tool of colonialism and unfairly suppressing competitors in the global power struggle.

Once seen as a loose and largely symbolic association of disparate emerging economies, the BRICS have in recent years taken on a more tangible form, initially spurred by Beijing and, since the outbreak of the Ukraine war in February 2022, with added impetus from Moscow.

Among other initiatives, the union launched the New Development Bank in 2015, although it stopped financing projects in Russia to comply with sanctions imposed by Western countries following the invasion of Ukraine.

“We will also explore opportunities to de-risk BRICS institutions in the current financial landscape,” Pandor said in her opening remarks, without elaborating.

BRICS leaders have said they are open to accepting new members, including oil-producing nations – an expansion likely to be on the agenda for the two-day ministers’ meeting in Cape Town.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud were in Cape Town for the BRICS meeting, which continues on Friday.

Officials said the two countries, along with Venezuela, Argentina, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates, are among countries that have formally applied to join BRICS or expressed interest.

Additional reporting by Karen du Plessis, Annette Meridzanian and Bhargav Achari in Johannesburg Writing by Estelle Charbon Editing by Joe Bavier, John Stonestreet and Rose Russell

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