The Department of International Relations and Cooperation has confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in the BRICS summit in August, virtually.
Anil Sooklal, the Ambassador-at-large for BRICS, said the decision that Putin will not come to South Africa was taken in full consultation with all BRICS leaders.
He said President Cyril Ramaphosa had consultations with BRICS leaders for a period of time.
Director-General in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation Zane Dangor said when the International Criminal Court issued a warrant of arrest against Putin, they had to look at options available.
He said none of the options included the physical presence of Putin in South Africa.
These options were discussed for some time.
Sooklal, who was briefing the media with other senior officials in the department on Thursday, said the summit has been dominated by the presence of Putin and the expansion of BRICS.
But Ramaphosa put the matter to rest after his announcement that Putin will not physically attend the summit in Sandton on August 22-24.
“On President Putin, as you know, the announcement was made by our president that he will not attend the summit physically, but he will attend the summit virtually. He will be involved in all of the sessions where the leaders are partaking.
“In the traditional summit of BRICS leaders on August 23 and on August 22 when BRICS leaders address the business forum and the closing plenary forum of BRICS, Putin will also deliver his remarks virtually,” said Sooklal.
He added that Putin will also take part in the BRICS outreach programme on August 24.
“Although (Foreign) Minister Sergey Lavrov will be physically present, Putin will be involved in all deliberations of the summit,” he said.
Sooklal said it was not new that Putin had missed an international event for some reason.
During the G20 summit in Indonesia in November, Putin pulled out because Western leaders threatened to stage a walkout if he attended.
As Putin did not want to collapse the summit, and out of respect for Indonesian President Joko Widodo, he decided not to attend the G20 summit, said Sooklal.
He said Ramaphosa had had consultation with all leaders of BRICS about Putin not attending the summit.
“This decision wasn’t taken just between Ramaphosa and Putin. Over the past several months our president has engaged all of the BRICS leaders on several occasions. He has spoken to them several times personally discussing this issue,” said Sooklal.
Dangor said when the warrant was issued by the ICC, they discussed the options available.
One of the options was that one of the BRICS countries, which is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, takes over and hosts the summit.
The second option was to have a fully virtual summit.
The third option is the one that has been reached now, that Putin will take part in the summit, virtually.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics