South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will hold talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as Pretoria considers switching the venue of an upcoming BRICS summit to avoid having to execute an international arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin if he attends.
Ramaphosa had already held talks with Putin on Wednesday to discuss preparations for the August gathering of heads of state from the five-member bloc, which includes Brazil and India.
"The president will make another phone call to the president of China, President Xi Jinping” this week, and will call Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi "in due course,” Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, a minister in Ramaphosa’s office, told reporters Thursday after a Cabinet meeting. For now, plans to hold the summit in Johannesburg remain unchanged, she said.