Russia’s Putin to visit ICC member Mongolia despite arrest warrant

Trip would be Russian president’s first to a member of International Criminal Court since warrant  over ‘war crimes’.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Mongolia next week despite the country being a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued a warrant for his arrest last year.

The visit, scheduled for September 3, will be Putin’s first trip to an ICC member state since The Hague-based court issued the arrest warrant in March 2023 accusing the president of the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and Russian-controlled territory.

On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were “no worries” over the visit, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

The visit is taking place on the invitation of Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh. “We have a wonderful dialogue with our friends from Mongolia,” Peskov said.

Under the Rome Statute, the court’s founding treaty, ICC members are bound to detain suspects for whom an arrest warrant has been issued if they set foot on their soil. However, the court does not have any enforcement mechanism.

The ICC’s arrest warrant for Putin was its first against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

Putin has avoided travel to ICC member states ever since the warrant, which he deems “null and void”, was issued. Last year, he skipped a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, in Johannesburg.

ICC member South Africa lobbied Moscow for months for Putin not to attend to avoid the diplomatic fallout, announcing that the countries had reached a “mutual agreement” that the BRICS regular not attend the meeting.

Putin took part by videolink, during which he launched a tirade against the West.

Armenia vexed Russia last year over its decision to join the ICC, adding to growing tensions between the old allies.

Armenian officials, however, quickly sought to assure Russia that Putin would not be arrested if he entered the country.

Mongolia signed the Rome Statute in 2000 and ratified it in 2002.

The Kremlin said Putin will hold talks with Khurelsukh and other top Mongolian officials, participating in “ceremonial events dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the joint victory of the Soviet and Mongolian armed forces over the Japanese militarists on the Khalkhin Gol River”.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies