MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin will next week visit Mongolia, a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that has issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader, the Kremlin said Thursday.
It will be the first time Putin has traveled to a country that has ratified the founding treaty of the ICC, the Rome Statute, since the Hague-based court issued the warrant for him in March 2023 over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.
ICC members are expected to make the arrest if the Russian leader sets foot on their territory.
Mongolia signed the Rome Statute treaty in 2000 and ratified it in 2002.
The Kremlin said Putin will travel to neighboring Mongolia on September 3 to mark the “85th anniversary of the joint victory of Soviet and Mongolian forces over Japanese militarists on the Khalkhin Gol River.”
The battle took place in 1939 during the Japanese occupation of nearby Manchuria.
The Kremlin said Putin and Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh will discuss bilateral relations and “exchange views on current international and regional issues.”
The visit will fall a month after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Mongolia as Washington seeks closer ties with the landlocked country.
The Kremlin has called the ICC warrant “absurd.”
Putin has reduced his foreign travel since launching a full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022 and limited it even more since the ICC issued the arrest warrant.
Putin to travel to Mongolia despite an ICC warrant for his arrest
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Putin to travel to Mongolia despite an ICC warrant for his arrest
- Kremlin said Putin will travel to neighboring Mongolia on Sept. 3 to mark the ‘85th anniversary of the joint victory of Soviet and Mongolian forces over Japan on the Khalkhin Gol River’
- Putin has reduced his foreign travel since launching a full-scale offensive against Ukraine in Feb. 2022 and limited it even more since the ICC issued the arrest warrant
US-Israeli attack violates international law: South Africa
- Ramaphosa “calls on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and to act in a manner consistent with international law,” a statement said
- Ramaphosa “reiterates his call for intensified diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions”
JOHANNESBURG: The US and Israeli strikes on Iran Saturday violated international law, South Africa’s president said, calling for restraint and dialogue.
The allies launched the attack citing “threats” from Iran, which retaliated with a barrage of missiles aimed at Gulf states that host US bases, and at Israel.
President Cyril Ramaphosa “calls on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and to act in a manner consistent with international law, international humanitarian law and the principles of the United Nations Charter,” a statement said.
The UN Charter states that self-defense can only be invoked when a state has been subjected to an armed invasion, the statement from his office said.
It condemned “international law violations,” saying: “Anticipatory self-defense is not permitted under international law and self-defense cannot be based on assumption or anticipation.”
Ramaphosa “reiterates his call for intensified diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions and create space for continued meaningful negotiations,” the statement said.
US President Donald Trump said Washington’s goal was “eliminating imminent threats” from Iran, while Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation was to remove an “existential threat.”
