Members of the International Criminal Court are treaty bound to detain suspects if an arrest warrant has been issued, but the court doesn’t have any enforcement mechanism.
ADVERTISEMENTRussian President Vladimir Putin was visiting Mongolia on Tuesday with no sign that the host country would bow to calls to arrest him on an international warrant for alleged war crimes stemming from the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The official visit flies in the face of an international warrant for Putin's arrest on war crimes charges that was issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) nearly 18 months ago. It is Putin's first trip to a member of the court since the warrant was handed down.
Members of the international court are bound to detain suspects if an arrest warrant has been issued, but the court doesn’t have any enforcement mechanism.
Ahead of his visit, Ukraine called on Mongolia to hand Putin over to the court in The Hague, and the European Union expressed concern that Mongolia might not execute the warrant. A spokesperson for Putin said last week that the Kremlin wasn’t worried.
The Russian leader was welcomed in a ceremony in the Mongolian capital, Ulaan Bator, by an honor guard dressed in vivid red and blue uniforms styled on those of the personal guard of 13th century ruler Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire.
He and Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh walked up the red-carpeted steps of the Government Palace and bowed before a statue of Genghis Khan before entering the government building for their meetings.
Putin will join a ceremony to mark the 85th anniversary of a Soviet and Mongolian battle victory over a Japanese army that had taken control of Manchuria in northeastern China.
International pressure
The ICC accuses Putin of being responsible for the abductions of children from Ukraine, where the fighting has raged for two-and-a-half years. One of the court's sitting judges, Erdenebalsuren Damdin, is himself Mongolian.
Ukraine has called on Mongolia to arrest Putin and hand him over to the court in The Hague, with the foreign ministry saying it “hopes that the Mongolian government will realise the fact that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal".
The European Commission has also called on Mongolia to fulfil its obligations to the ICC and place Putin under arrest.
“Mongolia, like all other countries, has the right to develop its international ties according to its own interests,” European Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said, adding: “Mongolia is a state party to the Rome Statute of the ICC since 2002, with the legal obligations that it entails.”
Mongolia, a sparsely populated country between Russia and China, heavily depends on the former for fuel and electricity and the latter for investment in its mining industry.
It was among the 94 countries to sign a joint statement in June declaring their "unwavering support" for the ICC after Prosecutor Karim Khan faced a backlash for seeking arrest warrants against two Israeli officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and three Hamas leaders.
Putin has not travelled to an ICC member state since the arrest warrant was issued in March 2023. While he visited North Korea and Vietnam last month and China twice in the past year, he skipped last year's summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies in South Africa.
He instead joined the meeting in Johannesburg by video link after the South African government lobbied against him showing up for the summit to avoid forcing the arrest warrant issue.
ADVERTISEMENTSouth Africa remains an ICC member, but has heavily criticised it for an alleged anti-African bias. Conflicting government statements in recent years have cast doubt on whether or not it will leave the court altogether.
Ultimately, the countries announced a “mutual agreement” that Putin would not attend in person.
Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute that establishes the ICC, so the Kremlin has dismissed the ICC warrant on Putin as “null and void”.
However, it has also bristled at its allies' attempts to join the Hague-based court.
ADVERTISEMENTArmenia's decision to join added to the growing tensions between Moscow and Yerevan last year, but officials quickly sought to assure Russia that Putin wouldn’t be arrested if he entered the country.
ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah underscored in a statement on Friday that Mongolia “is a state party to the ICC Rome Statute” and thus must cooperate with the court.
“The ICC relies on its states parties and other partners to execute its decisions, including in relation to arrest warrants. In case of non-cooperation, ICC judges may make a finding to that effect and inform the Assembly of States Parties of it.
"It is then for the assembly to take any measure it deems appropriate.”
ADVERTISEMENTIt wasn’t clear from the statement what kind of measures could be enforced.