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Putin, South African president discuss preparations for upcoming BRICS summit — Kremlin

Talks between the presidents of Russia and South Africa were held on Saturday

MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not say whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had discussed his potential participation in the upcoming BRICS summit with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa.

That said, the Kremlin official confirmed that in general, discussing preparations for the summit was on their agenda. The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit will be held in South Africa in late August.

"The issues of preparations for the upcoming summit were on the agenda. The discussion continues," Peskov said replying to a question as to whether Putin’s participation in this forum was discussed and if any decisions on the matter were made.

Talks between the presidents of Russia and South Africa were held on Saturday. Ramaphosa visited Moscow as part of a peace mission in order to discuss the ways of settling the situation in Ukraine.

Fikile Mbalula, secretary general of the African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling political party, said that the country’s government was expecting Putin at the BRICS summit and was doing everything possible to resolve the issues related to the summit.

On June 14, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov noted that many organizational matters, including whether South Africa would execute the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for Putin, were still up in the air. That said, he pointed out that preparations for the summit "are active."

Tags

Foreign policy Vladimir Putin South Africa BRICS

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