Africa-Press – South-Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa was all smiles when he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since the publicising of an affidavit laying out his fears of Russia declaring war if South Africa arrested him.
Ramaphosa and Putin shook hands at the Konstantinovsky Palace in St Petersburg on Saturday.
They were meeting to “discuss South Africa and Russia’s bilateral relationship which is built on strategic partnerships in several areas including energy, industry and agriculture”, according to the Presidency on its social media account.
In photos supplied by the GCIS, the two leaders appeared to be a jovial mood as they posed for the cameras. They smiled and appeared to laugh while talking.
In a publicised affidavit to the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, Ramaphosa said his fear of war with Russia was the reason he did not want to execute the March-issued International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Putin.
The government claimed a diplomatic victory last week when it announced that Putin would not physically attend the BRICS summit planned for next month, where domestic and international laws would have forced the government to arrest the Russian leader.
Ramaphosa told both the ICC and the High Court that he feared that Russia would declare war on South Africa if it were to arrest Putin. He said the government took threats by Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev seriously.
Ramaphosa and other African heads of state this week attended the second Russia–Africa Summit.
“All of Africa would like to see peace prevailing. We are all in support of peace and, in many ways, our coming here also testifies to that,” Ramaphosa told delegates at a round table discussion.
“In, addition, we collectively as African countries have a very collaborative relationship with Russia. We co-operate in a number of areas and this give us the ability to talk to you about peace.
“As much as we are having challenges on our African continent, we stand on the side of peace.”
Ramaphosa said he was pleased that Russia had recognised the peace initiative by African countries, and that it took it “very seriously and have given due consideration and regard to the proposals we have put forward”.
He urged dialogue and negotiations to end the conflict resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We did inform you that we as African countries stand firm on the respect for the UN charter and principles which we also have appropriated as the AU, and we do believe those principles should be respected,” he said.
“We are pleased to hear you say exactly the same thing. We are pleased to hear you also say that our ideas resonate with your ideas and they also coincide with the ideas that have been put forward by others, principally China.”
Russia has been accused of “weaponising food” after it suspended the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allowed the safe export of grain and fertiliser from Ukraine to other parts of the world.
Putin had said Africa would not starve and that Russia was ready to supply the continent with grain. He announced that Zimbabwe was one of the first African countries to receive grain from Russia, free of charge.
Ramaphosa said: “We would like the Black Sea to be opened to the world market. We are not coming to plead for donations for the African continent, [however] we do recognise out of the generosity and heart of the Russian federation, you have decided to donate grain.
“We are hear to listen to you, to hear what your response would be to some of the proposals [on the Russia-Ukraine war]. As we said, we are prepared to engage.”
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