China's top police officer has promised South Africa that Beijing will help bolster security for the BRICS summit in August amid controversy over Russian President Vladimir Putin's possible attendance while an international warrant is out for his arrest.
During a meeting with South African Police Minister Bheki Cele in Beijing on Thursday, Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong said China was willing to work with South Africa to "strengthen the security" of the BRICS summit to be held in Johannesburg on August 22-24.
BRICS is made up of members China, India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa. The possible attendance of Putin - who is the subject of a war crimes arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court - has put South Africa's handling of the warrant and summit security under the spotlight.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
The ICC issued the warrant for Putin in March, accusing him of the unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of people from the territory of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
As a signatory to the ICC, South Africa would be obliged to execute the warrant if Putin visited the country for the summit.
However, South Africa issued diplomatic immunity for attendees in late May. Its foreign ministry said it was South Africa's "standard" conferment of immunity for international conferences and summits held in the country and "the immunities are for the conference and not for specific individuals".
South Africa has sent an invitation to Putin but neither it nor Russia have confirmed he will attend. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 30 that "Russia will participate in the BRICS summit at an appropriate level".
Putin spoke with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa on the phone on Wednesday about preparations for the summit in Johannesburg, as well as the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, the Kremlin said.
South Africa declined to enforce an ICC warrant for the arrest of the Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir during a visit in 2015.
China has not announced whether President Xi Jinping will attend the summit, but during a phone call between Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his South African counterpart Naledi Pandoron Tuesday, Qin said Beijing was willing to "support South Africa in successfully hosting the leaders' meeting, strengthen the solidarity and cooperation of BRICS countries", according to a statement from the ministry.