Vladimir Putin is a wanted man in many parts of the world. He is a ‘war criminal’. However, he sees India as a “natural ally”. The Russian president is now set to visit the country but the dates of his trip are yet to be finalised.
“We welcomed Prime Minister Modi twice this year and we hope that soon we will figure out the dates of the
visit of President Putin to India,” Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday (November 19) during a video address at an event in New Delhi organised by Russia’s state-owned Sputnik news agency.
Putin last visited India for the India-Russia Annual Summit in 2021. A lot has changed since. On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and the president’s upcoming visit will be the first since the war.
There is an arrest warrant against Putin by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was issued in March 2023, for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. But does it apply to India? Is New Delhi obliged to act against the Russian leader? The answer is no. We explain why.
What’s the ICC? Why has it issued an arrest warrant against Putin?
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is a global court with the power to prosecute leaders and other individuals for the “gravest crimes of concern to the international community.” It investigates and, when necessary, tries those charged with genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression.
The ICC was established in 2002 after years of efforts to set up a system that could hold world leaders responsible for atrocities. There was a growing demand to create such a body after the Yugoslav wars and the Rwandan Genocide, reports the BBC.
The ICC—also known as the World Court—seeks to complement and not replace national courts. It steps in when national authorities cannot or are not willing to prosecute, as in the case of authoritarian leaders such as Putin.
The court issued an
arrest warrant against Putin in March 2023 for alleged war crimes involving accusations that Russia has forcibly taken children from Ukraine.
According to the ICC, Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights are “allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
But despite the arrest warrant, the chances of Putin being held in another country are slim.
Russia and Ukraine are not signatories of the ICC. After the warrant, Kremlin spokesman Peskov said, “Russia, like a number of other states, does not recognise the jurisdiction of this court, and therefore any of its decisions are insignificant for the Russian Federation from a legal viewpoint.”
Does India have to abide by the ICC?
The ICC is governed by an international treaty called the Rome Statute, which was ratified by 124 countries. However, India is not part of the ICC and New Delhi has not signed the core agreement. Hence, it is not bound by its principles.
India has in the past hosted leaders that have faced action against the ICC. In 2015, then-Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir visited New Delhi for the India-Africa Summit. He is the first sitting head of state indicted by the ICC for intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population in Darfur. He is charged with crimes against humanity: murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture, and rape; two counts of war crimes.
The ICC issued arrest warrants against al-Bashir in March 2009 and 2010. Ahead of his India visit, the court had told New Delhi to arrest the African leader but no such step was taken.
Similarly, India will not take action against Putin.
Has the Ukraine war hit India-Russia ties?
India has maintained neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine war, even as trade with Russia has continued. There was a brief pause in annual bilateral meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Putin. India held the Shanghai Cooperation Summit virtually last year and the Russian president did not attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi in September 2023.
However, during this time, India continued to
import oil and coal from Russia. Amid this,
Modi has also publicly criticised Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine.
But a lot has changed since the beginning of the war. Indian and Russian leaders have started meeting again. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Moscow in December 2023 and held talks with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. They discussed “the state of multilateralism and the building of a multipolar world order.”
After meeting Jaishankar, Lavrov said that the two countries had made tangible progress in talks on plans to jointly produce military equipment.
This year, Modi visited Russia twice. The PM held
summit-level talks with Putin in Moscow in July. He also visited Russia’s Kazan in October for the Brics Summit.
Modi has also invited Putin to visit India for the 2025 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit.
Last week, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov visited India to hold key discussions on bilateral and global issues with the Indian leadership.
According to the Kremlin spokesperson, “the trade and economic cooperation” between the two countries is “really booming”. In 2022, he said, trade figures crossed $35.3 billion, recording a sharp rise in 2023 at $56.7 billion. In the first half of 2024, India has touched $30 billion and is expected to cross the $60 billion mark.
India has a lot at stake with Russia. Yet it has tread carefully. When Putin visits, the world, especially the West, will be watching closely.
With inputs from agencies