Putin overshadows ambitious BRICS Africa plan
AGAINST the backdrop of Table Mountain and a vista of the Atlantic Ocean, the five BRICS foreign ministers are meeting in Cape Town in preparation for the bloc’s leadership summit in South Africa in August this year. The picturesque setting, however, masks controversial issues on the table and a range of difficult issues to be resolved. The headline attention is, of course, on Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine. The warrant has placed South Africa, a signatory to ICC protocols, on the…