Russia’s Sergey Lavrov touches down in SA to attend BRICS summit

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in South Africa on Tuesday to attend the BRICS summit in Johannesburg.

Lavrov is attending the summit in person after Russian President Vladimir Putin pulled out a few weeks ago. Lavrov is representing Putin at the summit.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced at the time that Putin will not physically attend the BRICS summit because of the warrant of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court.

Lavrov was going to lead the Russian delegation in the country.

However, Putin was going to participate in the summit virtually.

Lavrov was was in South Africa in June where he attended the meeting of BRICS Foreign Ministers. The meeting took place in Cape Town and was also attended by countries that wanted to join the BRICS bloc.

After the meeting in Cape Town ministers of international relations and cooperation Naledi Pandor announced that Egypt, Uruguay, the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh had joined as members of the BRICS Bank.

siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za

IOL