Shettima departs Abuja as arrest warrant prevents Russia’s Putin from attending BRICS Summit in South Africa

Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, departed Abuja on Monday to represent President Bola Tinubu at the 15th annual BRICS Summit taking place from Tuesday, August 22 to Thursday, August 24 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The summit will be attended by leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, as well as other dignitaries from around the world.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending in person due to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes committed in Ukraine.

The ICC in The Hague accused Putin of responsibility for the war crime of deporting hundreds of Ukrainian children to Russia.

A panel of ICC judges had passed a judgment that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, bore responsibility for the “unlawful deportation” of the Ukrainian children.

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Russia had quickly dismissed the allegations and the country’s foreign minister had said ICC’s decisions “have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view.”

But ICC’s 123 member states are obliged to arrest, detain and transfer Putin if he sets foot on their territory.

Shettima is expected to join other business and political leaders at the summit to discuss issues such as trade and investment facilitation, sustainable development, innovation, and global governance reform.

The summit will also continue its outreach to leaders from Africa and the global South.

BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. One of its founding values is a shared commitment to restructure the global political, economic and financial architecture to be fair, balanced and representative resting on pillars of multilateralism and international law.

The Nigerian Vice President was accompanied on the trip by some senior government officials and he is expected back in the country at the end of the week.

Quadri Olaitan