31 August 2024. Reportedly, Putin has accepted Xi Jinping’s invitation to visit China and attend the Belt and Road Forum in October. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been avoiding his visits to foreign countries since he faces an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova and President Vladimir Putin’s arrest. Lvova-Belova is the commissioner for children’s rights in Russia. Lvova-Belova and Putin were allegedly involved in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia during the invasion.
Various media have reported in detail about Russia’s mass campaign for the abduction of Ukrainian children and later on, placing them in Russian families. The ICC accused Putin and Lvova-Belova of these alleged human rights violations. The ICC is a governing body that has been endorsed by 123 countries around the world since 2002. It’s based in The Hague, Netherlands. The ICC’s purpose is to hold those accountable for serious crimes, including genocide, human rights violations, and war crimes.
Since the arrest warrant, Putin has been absent from several global political events. Later this month, from August 22 to 24, South Africa hosted the BRICS Summit. Despite being a key member of the Five Nations Group, Putin declined to travel to South Africa. The decision was made in June, as South Africa, the host of the event, is a signatory to the ICC and will be in a dilemma of fulfilling its conflicting duties.
Putin is not attending the G20 Summit in India in September as he declined Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation, although India is not an endorser of the ICC. There was another invitation from Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to Vladimir Putin to visit Turkey for a discussion on the Black Sea Grain Deal, which will allow the Ukrainian port to be opened for exporting goods during the Russia-Ukraine war.
Putin Accepted China’s Invitation to Belt and Road Forum
According to three anonymous sources, the Kremlin is preparing for the president’s trip to China. One of the sources said Putin accepted the invitation to attend the Belt and Road Forum in October, which was from Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and current president of China. China has established itself as Russia’s most notable ally since the very beginning of the crisis that Russia faces presently.
The last visit to Beijing by Putin was right before the invasion of Ukraine, which Russia acknowledges as a “Special Military Operation”, Putin and Xi Jinping proclaimed a limitless partnership that expanded in the fields of trade, politics, economics, and the military.
China has refused to blame Moscow and opposed the sanctions against Putin. Taking Russia’s side has been beneficial for China as it has gotten lower prices for oil and natural gas that are off limits for Europeans and has observed Russia’s use of the yuan as a reserve currency grow.
Putin and Xi signed a number of commercial and other accords when Xi, in turn, travelled to Moscow in March. The two nations have formally proclaimed their friendship, and China has refused to side with the West to urge Putin to cease the war in Ukraine.
