Durban - The South African government consulted with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and BRICS before a mutual agreement was reached with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would not attend the group’s summit in Johannesburg next month.
Putin is expected to attend the summit virtually and the Presidency said on Wednesday that the Russian Federation would be represented in person by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Professor Anil Sooklal, the Ambassador at Large: Asia and BRICS, at the Department of International Relations, said South Africa would fulfil its international obligations fully and respect these obligations, in terms of the treaties that the country had signed.
The ICC, of which South Africa is a full member, issued a warrant of arrest for Putin and urged 123 countries who are signatories to the Rome Statute to arrest him. This is for alleged war crimes related to the abduction of children from Ukraine.
On Tuesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a court affidavit made public that he would risk war with Russia if Putin was arrested at the summit.
However, the lengthy deliberations on whether Putin would attend the summit have raised questions about the country’s decisiveness relating to its foreign policy.
Unisa Professor Emeritus of International Law, Andre Thomashausen, said that international media had portrayed the news as South Africa being the weak link in the BRICS alliance.
“That is because it easily vacillates between possible economic ties and interests.”
Thomashausen said SA trade with the West was 60%, 30% with China and the rest was between India, Europe and other Asian countries.
“The foreign policy is not clear because of the political divide in the country. Apartheid South Africa worked with the West and this old allegiance continues with the DA as they defend Western interests. This clashes with the majority of South Africans at the wrong end of those policies. The country is undergoing a yo-yo effect between the West and the new world and BRICS is very much the new world.”
International relations expert, Dr Noluthando Phungula of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said there was an evident shift in global power dynamics and the country appeared to be acting to preserve and protect its South-South and BRICS co-operation.
“South Africa’s voting pattern in these instances should be read in the context of its foreign policy under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa, which seems to be geared towards economic diplomacy.”
She said the country’s stance had caused a headache for the US, in light of the global power dynamics.
The EFF said the decision that Putin would not attend the summit was not unexpected as there had been a lack of security guarantees by the “ANC government to the Russian Federation, which failed to protect not only a strategic global partner but also a historical ally in our fight against colonial domination and imperialism”.