South Africa has extricated itself from a potentially embarrassing situation with Russian president Vladimir Putin having decided not to attend the Brics summit to be held in Johannesburg next month. The decision followed extensive consultations between the two countries, including discussions between South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa and Mr Putin last month. South Africa is a signatory to the International Criminal Court which in March had issued a warrant to arrest the Russian President for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children.

This means Pretoria would have been obligated to arrest Mr. Putin the moment he landed in the country, and even if Mr Ramaphosa was inclined to look the other way, or find a legal way out of the predicament, the South African opposition would not let him do so for it had sued the government to meet its treaty obligations. Mr Ramaphosa said in the course of the legal proceedings that “Russia has made it clear that arresting its sitting President would be a declaration of war. It would be inconsistent with our Constitution to risk engaging in war with Russia.” Moscow has denounced the ICC warrant and maintains it is inapplicable because Russia is not an ICC signatory.

Nonetheless, Mr. Putin has been careful not to travel outside Russia since March, except to the occupied territories in Ukraine. He will attend the Brics summit meeting by video-conference and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to join heads of government from the other member nations. The summit agenda is expected to cover trade and investment and global governance reform. But a controversial discussion point could be a new, gold-backed currency which has been mooted to reduce dependence on the US dollar, even though South Africa’s top Brics diplomat says this is not on the agenda. Russia, China and Brazil have increasingly used non-dollar currencies in crossborder transactions, and the three countries have taken public positions in support of a Brics currency.

Brics nations have also explored the possibility of a cryptocurrency. But experts believe that the grouping may focus on developing an efficient and integrated payment system for cross-border transactions before looking to create a currency of their own. Thus, the Johannesburg summit will be closely watched for it will confirm the resolve of the grouping to play the lead role in an emerging world order.

Several economists have gone on record to say a new currency could be a game changer, especially because Brics accounts for 40 per cent of the world’s population, and between a quarter and a third of global GDP. But on the other hand, the grouping has always been a disparate one, with critics often saying its members have little in common in terms of governance systems and strategic heft, and as between India and China, much to keep them apart. The other contentious agenda item is likely to be the enlargement of the grouping, where India has expressed reservations.