Russian chief Vladimir Putin is poised to satisfy with Mongolia’s president and different senior officers regardless of requires his arrest beneath a warrant from the Worldwide Prison Courtroom associated to alleged battle crimes.
Putin will meet President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa on Tuesday after arriving Monday night time within the nation sandwiched between Russia and China. The 2 will talk about “problems with relations and cooperation,” the Mongolian authorities mentioned with out elaborating.
The go to is the primary by Putin to a member state of the ICC for the reason that warrant was issued final 12 months over the kidnapping of kids from occupied areas of Ukraine. As a signatory to the Rome Statute governing the court docket, Mongolia is obliged to implement the warrant and arrest Putin if he seems on its territory.
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Putin hasn’t risked comparable travels earlier than. He skipped final 12 months’s summit in South Africa of leaders from the BRICS grouping after the host made clear it must adjust to the ICC warrant as a member state.
Putin obtained assurances forward of the journey to Mongolia that he received’t be arrested, Bloomberg Information reported earlier, citing two folks accustomed to the Kremlin’s preparations for his travels.
Ukraine’s Ministry of International Affairs mentioned in a press release that Mongolia ought to “execute the binding worldwide arrest warrant and switch Putin to the Worldwide Prison Courtroom in The Hague.”
A spokesman for the ICC mentioned earlier that events “to the ICC Rome Statute have the duty to cooperate” with court docket choices, “together with in relation to arrest warrants.” Within the case of non-cooperation, an ICC choose could inform the court docket’s oversight and legislative physique, which might “take any measure it deems acceptable.”
Putin’s go to comes solely six months after the primary Mongolian choose to serve on the ICC took up his submit. Khurelsukh hailed the event on the time.
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A spokesperson from the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar mentioned earlier that Putin shouldn’t be given a platform to advertise aggression towards Ukraine.
Neither Russia nor the U.S. are members of the ICC, which has 124 member states.
Russia goals to construct a brand new gasoline pipeline, Energy of Siberia 2, through Mongolia to China. Russia could provide gasoline to Mongolia as a part of the endeavor, Putin mentioned in an interview with Mongolia’s Unuudur newspaper.
