BRICS ministers meet in push to establish group as counterweight to West
Foreign ministers from the BRICS countries are meeting in South Africa from Thursday (1 June) as the five-nation bloc seeks to forge itself into a counterweight to Western geopolitical dominance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The talks are a prelude to an August summit in Johannesburg that has already created controversy because of the possible attendance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the target of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant.
It accused him in March of the war crime of forcibly deporting children from Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine. Moscow denies the allegations. South Africa had already invited Putin in January.
ICC judges issue arrest warrant for Putin over war crimes
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant on Friday (17 March) against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes committed in Ukraine.
South African authorities confirmed that foreign ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa are attending Thursday’s meeting in Cape Town. A deputy minister is representing China.