Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be arrested if he goes to the next G20 summit to be organized in 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted. According to him, "there is no reason" for this.
During an interview aired on September 9 on the Indian TV news channel, Firstpost, Lula assured that Vladimir Putin would receive an invitation to come to the Brazilian city despite the arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued in March.
"I can tell you that if I am President of Brazil and if he comes to Brazil, there is no reason for him to be arrested," Lula declared on the sidelines of the G20 summit, which took place this weekend in New Delhi.
"We like to take care of people. So I think Putin can easily go to Brazil," he added.
Lula da Silva also compared the conflict between Russia and Ukraine with other confrontations.
"The US invaded Iraq without consulting anyone, and Britain and France invaded Libya without consulting anyone first [...] We believe that it is necessary to respect the fundamental principle of the United Nations, Brazil is 100% against the invasion of the territorial integrity of any other country," he concluded.
ICC Warrant
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant on March 17 against President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian commissioner for children's rights, accusing them of illegal deporting Ukrainian minors. Russia stresses that, in fact, it had evacuated the children from the combat zones.
Moscow does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and has nixed the body's decision as null and void.
Brazil is a signatory to the 1998 Rome Statute, the international treaty that led to the creation of the ICC in 2002, and would therefore theoretically have to arrest the Russian president if he entered the South American country.
Against the backdrop of the warrant, Putin decided not to attend the Johannesburg-hosted BRICS Summit in August. South Africa is also a party to the ICC. The Russian delegation at the Johannesburg meeting was led by the head of Russia's diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov, while Putin took part in the event online.
Putin is not attending this weekend's meeting of the G20, a club that consists of the world's major developed and emerging economies, like he did in 2022 in Bali. Russia is being represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.