COME hell or high water, China stands ready to do everything in its power to assist South Africa to host a successful BRICS summit in August.
The much anticipated summit by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), has been thrown into question by a warrant for the arrest of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has accused President Putin of war crimes following the relocation of dozens of children from the war-torn Donbass area in the eastern part of Ukraine.
The children have been resettled in Russia for what the Kremlin has cited as safety reasons in a territory that has seceded from Ukraine and opted to be incorporated into the Russian Federation.
South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute and stands obligated to effect President Putin’s arrest should he honour his initial invite to attend the BRICS summit in person.
It is a major diplomatic conundrum Pretoria faces. The United States-led Nato countries are anticipating that Pretoria arrest the Russian leader, failing which extended economic sanctions led by Washington will be unleashed against the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Russia is a strategic member of BRICS and a historical ally of the ANC-led government since the anti-apartheid struggle that resulted in the dawn of democratic South Africa in April 1994.
In the same vein, the US and the West are South Africa’s traditional allies whose economic cooperation has continued to thrive throughout the country’s fledgling democracy.
Although it looks like the Ramaphosa administration has been caught between a rock and hard place amidst the open geopolitical warfare between the US and Russia, and there has been no apparent solution in sight for the Putin poser.
President Ramaphosa has since assigned his deputy, Paul Mashatile, to lead a behind-the-scenes initiative aimed at thrashing out a pro-Putin solution that would not be embarrassing to South Africa’s standing in international relations.
Speaking to the South African media at the HQ of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, China, this week, spokesperson Mr Wang Wenbin was unflinching in his declaration of support for Pretoria.
“We will do everything we can to assist the government of South Africa to find a solution,” Mr Wang told a group of visiting South African journalist whose trip had been facilitated by the Government Communication and Information Service (GCIS). There has been speculation that one of the face-saving solution to the Putin poser could be Pretoria requesting China’s to play host to the BRICS’ August summit, albeit leaving the chairing duties to South Africa.
The other possible way-out could be holding the summit virtually, a possibly embarrassing solution yet workable for the host country. The solution would likely cause uneasiness within the BRICS quarters, although the reaction to such a proposal is thus far publicly unknown.
BRICS is on a mission to emerge as a major player in global affairs dominated by the G7-led hegemony of the Washington and its weaponisation of the US dollar against geopolitical opponents.
The August summit of BRICS is expected to assume a greater significance in anticipation of the adoption of a resolution to expand the bloc’s membership.
Several countries have expressed a desire in writing and others verbally to join BRICS. They include key players in the global south such as Turkey, Iran, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Cuba and Venezuela, among others.
BRICS’s August summit is expected to accept between two and five applicants. When asked about China’s stance in the anticipated expansion of the bloc, Mr Wang said Beijing was not averse to the idea, and would support such a resolution should the BRICS’ member-states elect to broaden the global base of the organisation.
“We will see what our allies say in due course,” Mr Wang said in response to the question by the Independent Media. “The growth and expansion of BRICS is something that we however support fully,” he added through an interpreter.
Pressure on the decades-old domination of the US dollar on global trade has been brought to bear by leading BRICS members in the form of Russia, China and India, whose de-dollarization campaign has been an open secret since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the US-led economic sanctions against Moscow by the Nato, and EU countries.
In swift retaliation, the Kremlin outlawed the purchase of Russian oil and gas by the EU and Nato member-states through the US dollar and the Euro. All Russian goods and services to Europe and the global north are required to be effected strictly through the Russian Rubble. That is a new normal amidst the rapidly-changing geopolitics.
To compound the complex and constantly deteriorating East-West relations, key BRICS members – China and India – have become the main importers of Russia’s gas and oil, daring western sanctions. In addition South Africa and Brazil are among a myriad of nations across the global south that have refused to be dragged on the side of west, adopting a non-aligned stance that has irked the west.
BRICS countries combined account for nearly 45 percent of the world’s population. Their collective strength and cooperation is therefore not a small matter.
And in other developments, five African heads of state led by South Africa have declared their willingness to lead an African initiative aimed at brokering a truce in the Ukraine war that the west has invested in unprecedentedly in their proxy war against Russia.
The five leaders were Comoros Islands’ President Othman Ghazali, who is also the current President of the AU, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Senegal’s Macky Sall, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia.
China’s Mr Wang revealed that Beijing was in full support of the African initiative, and hoped that through it, peace will be given a chance.
“We are very much aware about the effort of our African colleagues. It is a good initiative. We hope it will succeed,” he said.
The African Peace Mission Initiative has travelled to Kyiv to meet with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before proceeding to Moscow for a face-to-face meeting with President Putin. Russia has publicly welcomed Africa’s bold initiative. In the west, the initiative was met with hushed tones of dismissal before the journey even began.