BRICS Foreign Ministers Stress Union’s Ambitions to Rival the West

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BRICS foreign ministers on Thursday asserted their bloc’s ambition to rival western powers. At a news conference later, the ministers side-stepped a barrage of questions about the Putin issue.

BRICS foreign ministers on Thursday asserted their bloc's ambition to rival Western powers but their talks in South Africa were overshadowed by questions over whether Russia's president would be arrested if he attended a summit in August.

 

South Africa's foreign minister Naledi Pandor said her country was mulling options if Vladimir Putin, the subject of a war crimes arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), came to the planned BRICS summit in Johannesburg.

 

As a member of the ICC, South Africa would theoretically be required to arrest Putin, and Pandor was bombarded with questions about that as she arrived for a first round of talks with representatives from Brazil, Russia, India and China.

 

"The answer is the president (Cyril Ramaphosa) will indicate what the final position of South Africa is. As matters stand an invitation has been issued to all (BRICS) heads of state," she said.

 

At a news conference later, the ministers side-stepped a barrage of questions about the Putin issue.

 

The ICC accused Putin in March of the war crime of forcibly deporting children from Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine. Moscow denies the allegations. South Africa had invited Putin in January.

 

Putin has not confirmed his plans, with the Kremlin only saying Russia would take part at the "proper level".

 

The ministers sought to focus attention on their ambition to build up their influence in a multi-polar world.

 

India's Subrahmanyam Jaishankar spoke of the concentration of economic power which he said "leaves too many nations at the mercy of too few", and of the need to reform global decision-making including by the United Nations Security Council.