Russia's Putin attends BRICS summit in South Africa remotely while facing war crimes warrant
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are both absent as leaders from the BRICS group of emerging economies open a three-day summit in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping were both absent as leaders from the BRICS group of emerging economies started a three-day summit in South Africa on Tuesday.
Putin’s travel to Johannesburg was complicated by an outstanding International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest over the abduction of children from Ukraine. His participation as the bloc named for member nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa opened its first in-person meeting since before the COVID-19 pandemic came in the form of a 17-minute prerecorded speech.
Xi, who was in South Africa and held a bilateral morning meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa, did not join his host and the leaders of Brazil and India for a business forum at the primary summit venue. No reason was given for his absence, and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao read Xi's speech.
The summit's main session in Johannesburg’s financial district of Sandton is scheduled for Wednesday, when Xi, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ramaphosa were expected to meet as BRICS mulls a possible expansion.
The bloc already is home to 40% of the world’s population and responsible for more than 30% of global economic output, and more than 20 nations have applied to join, according to South African officials, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi planned to attend the summit.
The five current
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