As a result of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin and several senior military officials are subject to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) under the Rome Statute, which requires all signatories to comply with their obligations to arrest Putin if he enters their territory. The order posed a dilemma for some countries, the first being South Africa, which was preparing to host the BRICS summit. As Russia is a founding member of the BRICS organization, South Africa could not hold the Summit without inviting the President of one of its founding countries\. In the end, it was Putin who avoided embarrassing South Africa by taking the initiative not to attend. Instead, his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov participated via video as a representative of the Russian delegation.
Since India is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, there was no embarrassment in executing the arrest warrant when it hosted this year’s G20 summit, with Vladimir Putin not attending for other reasons. But the next G20 summit will be held in Brazil, and, upon taking responsibility, Brazilian President Lula told the media that Putin would not be arrested if he attended the summit in 2024. Perhaps he did not realize at the time that Brazil too is a signatory country to the Rome Statute. When he realized this, he immediately changed his version to say that this was a matter for the Ministry of Justice. However, within two days, Brazil’s Minister of Justice abruptly declared that the country was considering withdrawing from the Rome Statute.
In fact, South Africa also considered the possibility of withdrawing from the Rome Statute. The South African President also had plans to do so in the first few days, when he encountered the problem, but Putin decided not to attend and this plan was put aside and never mentioned again. Brazil is considering exiting the Rome Statute so that Putin can attend the 2024 G20 summit. With more than a year until then, we hope Lula finds a way to resolve this issue.
While Brazil was thinking about withdrawing from the Rome Statute, another country, Armenia, declared itself ready to join the Statute, due to the Artsakh issue. Armenia is dissatisfied with Russia’s failure to act as a protector, and the Armenian prime minister stated in parliament that the country is determined to adhere to the Treaty of Rome in its entirety.
To calm Russian concerns over the decision, the Armenian President added that the decision was not in opposition to Russia. However, Russia issued a strong warning that this would have very serious consequences for relations between the two countries. With all nations deliberately avoiding the issue of Putin’s arrest, it appears that Armenia will be the only one to suffer the consequences.
*Chinese Senior Editor of Plataforma
