The South African government maintains contacts with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Pandor noted, adding that South Africa is also closely monitoring the situation around the conflict and is looking for opportunities to participate in attempts to establish a dialogue between Moscow and Kiev.
Pandor further noted that sanctions imposed by the West against Russia had a "secondary" effect, from which other countries "suffer." In particular, she cited the problem of transferring funds to employees of the South African embassy in Moscow due to the disconnection of Russian banks from the SWIFT system.
South Africa will be hosting a BRICS summit in August, in which Russian President Vladimir Putin is supposed to take part. However, Moscow said in April it will need to clarify, as part of bilateral contacts, South Africa's position on its membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC).
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the country would consider the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party's decision to withdraw from the ICC after it issued an arrest warrant for Putin. Later, Ramaphosa's office released a statement claiming there was "an error" in the South African president's comment and that the nation would remain in the ICC.