From News Nation:
“Russia’s Putin stays away over arrest warrant as leaders of
emerging economies meet in South Africa”
Russian President Vladimir Putin will be notably absent when
Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders from the BRICS group of emerging
economies start a three-day summit in South Africa on Tuesday. The bloc,
consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is holding its
first in-person meeting since before the COVID-19 pandemic, but Putin will
participate via video call after his travel to South Africa was complicated by
an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued for him in March over the
abduction of children from Ukraine.
Xi, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will
attend in person as the bloc — home to 40% of the world’s population and
responsible for more than 30% of global economic output — mulls a possible
expansion. That will top the agenda at Wednesday’s main summit meeting in
Johannesburg’s financial district of Sandton. More than 20 nations have applied
to join the bloc, according to South African officials, including Saudi Arabia,
Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin
Farhan will be at the summit, as will Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
The five BRICS countries will have to agree on the criteria
for new members before any countries are admitted, but a bigger BRICS is seen
as a policy favored by China and Russia as a kind of coalition amid their
deteriorating relations with the West. The BRICS group was formed in 2009 by
Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa was added in 2010. Overall,
around 1,200 delegates from the five BRICS nations and dozens of other
developing countries are expected in Johannesburg, including more than 40 heads
of state, according to Ramaphosa. United Nations Secretary-General António
Guterres also is expected to attend.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stressed that Putin will
fully participate despite appearing virtually and will make a speech. Russia
will also be represented in person by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. At the
summit, there will be calls for more economic cooperation and collaboration in
areas such as health, education and climate change — but under a growing
sentiment in the developing world that it is not being served by what it sees
as Western-led institutions such as the U.N., the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund. Ramaphosa met with Xi in the capital, Pretoria, on
Tuesday ahead of the summit. The South African leader said he was seeking
“Chinese support for South Africa and Africa’s call for the reform of global
governance institutions, notably the United Nations Security Council.”
Africa and South America have no permanent representatives on
the Security Council despite being home to nearly 2 billion people. Xi, who has
gradually resumed foreign travel after the lifting of his country’s strict
COVID-19 restrictions, joined Ramaphosa to watch a ceremonial parade by
soldiers at the Union Buildings, the official seat of the South African
government. He then planned to travel 60 kilometers (37 miles) through South
Africa’s most important economic province of Gauteng to the summit in
Johannesburg. Xi made brief comments, saying China was ready for more
cooperation with Africa’s most advanced economy “to take our comprehensive
strategic partnerships to new heights.” BRICS officials have pushed back at
characterizations that the bloc is taking an anti-West turn under the influence
of China and Russia, saying it is rather looking out for the interests of the
Global South. But the BRICS stance is at odds with the United States and its
Western allies on a number of issues, not least over Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine. The European Union called on Xi, Lula, Modi and Ramaphosa to use this
week’s gathering to condemn Russia and Putin for the war in Ukraine, but that’s
unlikely to happen. If anything, BRICS has been a forum for Russia to express
its anti-Western rhetoric, with Lavrov using a BRICS foreign ministers meeting
in June to lambast the West for its “hegemony” and using “financial blackmail”
to serve its ”selfish interests.”
A small protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was held
Tuesday at a public park more than 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the summit
venue. The U.S. and EU will be closely monitoring events in Johannesburg, with
the long list of countries lining up to join BRICS suggesting that the bloc’s
calls for a reorganization of the global governance structure might be hitting
home with many. Ahead of the meetings, the U.S. stressed its close ties with
India, Brazil and South Africa. Not officially on the agenda but an issue for
closed-door negotiations will be food security, with the developing world
especially eager to use its BRICS ties with Russia to seek more grain shipments
out of both Russia and Ukraine. Ramaphosa led a mission of African leaders to
Russia and Ukraine in June, meeting Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy to press for more grain exports to Africa, with little result. There’s
added urgency after Russia halted a deal allowing Ukraine to export through the
Black Sea last month, exacerbating hunger and pushing food prices higher. Putin
later announced free Russian grain shipments to six African nations and might
offer more shipments this week, some analysts say, as a means of gaining favor
among the dozens of developing nations represented at the BRICS summit. The
summit officially began with a business forum on Tuesday morning, and Xi, Lula,
Modi and Ramaphosa were expected to arrive at the Sandton Convention Centre for
the first meeting of the leaders in the afternoon. They will hold a retreat
Tuesday evening at the luxury Summer Place estate in Johannesburg’s plush Hyde
Park suburb.
^ This is a shame. I would have liked to see Putin go to
South Africa and see whether they South Africans would have actually arrested
him. It just shows how scared Putin really is. He is all talk with no
substance. ^
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