South Africa to Grant Diplomatic Immunity to August BRICS Summit Participants
BRICS unites the world's largest developing economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. A number of other countries intend to join the economic bloc, including Argentina, Iran, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. South Africa, which assumed the rotating BRICS presidency in January, is hosting the 15th BRICS summit in August.
SputnikSouth Africa will provide diplomatic immunity to all the participants of the upcoming BRICS Summit, slated to take place in August in Johannesburg, according to the South African Government Gazette.
Apart from that, the immunity will be granted to the attendees of a meeting of foreign ministers of the BRICS group, that will take place in early June.
"In accordance with the powers vested in me by section 6(2) of the Diplomatic Immunities and Priviliges Act, 2001 (Act No. 37 of 2001), I hereby recognise the BRICS Ministerial Meeting to be held in Cape Town, South Africa from 01 to 02 June and the 15th BRICS Summit to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 22 to 24 August 2023 for the purpose of granting the immunities and privileges provided for in section 6(1)(a) of the said Act, as set out in the attached Notice," the minute by the South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, read.
According to the Department of International Relations and Cooperations (DIRCO), granting of immunity is "a standard conferment of immunities that we do for all international conferences and summits held in South Africa irrespective of the level of participation.”
“The immunities are for the conference and not for specific individuals. They are meant to protect the conference and its attendees from the jurisdiction of the host country for the duration of the conference,” DIRCO said. “These immunities do not override any warrant that may have been issued by any international tribunal against any attendee of the conference.”
During the upcoming meeting of the foreign Ministers of the BRICS countries in Cape Town, which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is set to visit, the regional and global agenda will be discussed.
"The participants of the event will discuss topical issues of the international agenda, cooperation on leading multilateral platforms, and exchange views on the prospects for the development of the BRICS strategic partnership, including the institutional development of the association," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier.
In April, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russian President Vladimir
Putin received an invitation to the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, saying that "appropriate decisions will be made closer to the beginning of the event. But, in any case, Russia will actively participate in this."
Preparations to the August Summit as well as the July Russia-Africa Summit in Russia's city of St. Petersburg were discussed during the recent phone conversation between Putin and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.