With the ICC’s order to arrest Putin, South Africa considers its options

South Africa is considering its options in the event that Vladimir Putin accepts an earlier offer to go to the country for a summit in August given that an arrest warrant has been issued by the International Criminal Court.

On March 17, a war crimes trial in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president for the sending of Ukrainian children to Russia. South Africa has ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC, which requires nations to carry out the court’s global arrest orders.

Pretoria, however, is a staunch friend of Moscow and has refrained from denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It even went so far as to conduct private discussions with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, earlier this year and to welcome Russian warships for joint military drills in February.

In an interview with local radio station SAfm, South Africa’s minister for foreign affairs, Naledi Pandor, stated that the government was awaiting an updated legal advice on the situation before weighing its options.

She acknowledged that the issue was challenging but said, “You know, I think the Cabinet needs to examine this.” “After I have my opinion, I will present it to Cabinet so that the general policy of the government will direct our course of action.”

The notion of rescinding Putin’s invitation to the BRICS meeting, which brings together Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, was, however, resisted by the minister. The leaders of the group will meet in South Africa in August. Putin may or may not attend in person, according to Moscow.

Pandor also chastised the ICC for favouring certain governments over others and for not taking what she called a “evenhanded approach” holding all leaders accountable for violating international law.

But, Darren Bergman, a member of the Democratic Alliance, the major opposition party in South Africa, said the government must uphold its ICC obligations.

According to the Democratic Alliance, the Cabinet shouldn’t continue to issue invitations to President Putin and should instead revoke them, he added. “If they don’t, they should be prepared to serve President Putin with an arrest order.”

There are several options available to the administration, according to Steven Gruzd, a Russia specialist at the South African Institute for International Affairs. Moscow may sidestep the problem by holding a virtual BRICS summit, completely withdraw from the court, or—most likely—seek some form of diplomatic protection for Putin as a sitting head of state.

He added, “We’ve been in this situation before. “Omar al-Bashir, the president of the Sudan, visited South Africa in 2015 for the summit of the African Union, and the country was instructed to detain him. A municipal court issued a directive. Nonetheless, this was disregarded and defied, and he was let to flee a military installation.”

The South African government’s Department of Foreign Relations and Cooperation spokesperson, Lunga Ngqengelele, told VOA that the Cabinet will probably consider the issue this week.