The place may it happen? : NPR

President Trump stated his assembly with Russian President Vladimir Putin to debate an finish to the conflict in Ukraine is about to occur “very shortly” at a date and site that Trump stated he would announce “somewhat bit later” on Friday.

When — and, most critically, the place — these talks may occur continues to be unclear. However discovering impartial territory for these negotiations could also be difficult as Putin faces the specter of arrest from the Worldwide Prison Courtroom (ICC).

In 2023, the ICC within the Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin on conflict crime expenses. This now limits the choices for the place Trump and Putin can meet because the Russian president faces doable arrest in any of the greater than 120 ICC member international locations.

A common view of the outside of the Worldwide Prison Courtroom in The Hague, Netherlands, March 12, 2025.

Omar Havana/AP/AP

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Omar Havana/AP/AP

What’s the ICC and why can it concern arrest warrants?

In response to the necessity for a everlasting worldwide courtroom addressing crimes dedicated throughout conflict, the Worldwide Prison Courtroom (ICC), which is predicated in The Hague, Netherlands, formally started working in July 2002.

Since 1999, 125 international locations have signed onto the Rome Statute, establishing the worldwide courtroom. Neither the U.S. or Russia are member states. Ukraine grew to become a member in 2024.

The ICC has authority to pursue prison expenses, however solely on essentially the most severe crimes: genocide, crimes towards humanity, conflict crimes and the crime of aggression.

The courtroom would not have its personal police pressure or enforcement physique, so it depends on international locations’ cooperation to make arrests, switch arrested individuals to ICC detention in The Hague and to implement sentences.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin two years in the past over alleged conflict crimes tied to allegations Russia has forcibly kidnapped Ukrainian youngsters to Russia. The ICC additionally issued a warrant on the time for Putin’s commissioner for kids’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.

Russian officers have not denied the arrival of Ukrainian youngsters within the nation, however have characterised their arrival as a part of a humanitarian program for deserted, war-traumatized orphans.

Putin is not the one sitting head of state to face such severe expenses from the ICC. Final November, the worldwide courtroom issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged conflict crimes and crimes towards humanity within the Gaza Strip. The courtroom additionally issued warrants for Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former protection minister, Muhammad Deif, Hamas’ army chief whom Israel says it killed in August, in addition to different Hamas officers.

Israel contested the allegations towards Netanyahu and Gallant.

‘Russians do not care concerning the ICC’

Critics and authorities leaders have repeatedly questioned the ability and authority of the ICC.

“Russians do not care concerning the ICC,” stated Nina Khrushcheva, a world affairs professor for The New Faculty in New York, particularly due to the notion that the U.S. has been hypocritical relating to the courtroom.

When the ICC filed arrest warrants towards Netanyahu, then-President Joe Biden launched an announcement that stated, “The ICC issuance of arrest warrants towards Israeli leaders is outrageous. Let me be clear as soon as once more: regardless of the ICC may suggest, there is no such thing as a equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We are going to all the time stand with Israel towards threats to its safety.”

However when the ICC issued a warrant towards Putin, the response from the U.S. was extra supportive of the worldwide physique. On the time, White Home Nationwide Safety Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson advised NPR, “There is no such thing as a doubt that Russia is committing conflict crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, and we have now been clear that these accountable should be held accountable. The ICC prosecutor is an unbiased actor and makes his personal prosecutorial selections primarily based on the proof earlier than him. We assist accountability for perpetrators of conflict crimes.”

Khrushcheva stated, “So for Putin, it is one more affirmation for him that the West is pretty hypocritical, and so he would not take note of it.”

Again in September, Putin traveled to Mongolia, an ICC member since 2002. The journey went easily, and Putin was by no means taken into custody.

The view of the courtroom is that, as a member state, Mongolia had an obligation to honor the ICC’s arrest warrant, based on David Bosco, professor at Indiana College, who spoke to NPR’s All Issues Thought-about final yr.

However, Bosco stated, “Mongolia can also be located proper between Russia and China — two international locations that it has huge financial linkages with. And neither of these international locations is a member of the ICC. Neither of them are pleasant to the ICC. And Mongolia clearly determined that its financial and diplomatic pursuits outweighed its authorized obligations as a courtroom member.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff, proper, shake arms throughout their assembly on the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025.

Gavriil Grigorov/AP/Pool Sputnik Kremlin

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Gavriil Grigorov/AP/Pool Sputnik Kremlin

What are the leaders’ choices?

Whereas consultants and analysts have lengthy stated the prospect of an arrest of Putin is extraordinarily slim, it is unlikely that the Russian chief would take the possibility and maintain such a major assembly on unfriendly floor, Khrushcheva stated.

So this nonetheless probably guidelines out most of the 125 international locations listed as ICC members. This leaves technically about 70 nations nonetheless accessible, however fewer nonetheless are pleasant to each Russia and the U.S.

Khrushcheva says the Center East appears to be like to be essentially the most promising for each side to fulfill, given each Russia and the U.S. have good relations with a number of international locations there.

“Both the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia … Turkey are all potential choices,” she stated.

That is made much more probably because of the reality prior talks between Russia and Ukraine had been beforehand held in Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Many countries within the Center East have “raised their standing fairly a bit,” as a result of they’ve held these impartial grounds for negotiation, Khrushcheva stated.

And the Center East has performed an more and more large function in internet hosting high-stakes worldwide negotiations. The small, rich Arab Gulf nation of Qatar, additionally a U.S. ally, served as the house for delicate negotiations between Israel and Hamas, for the reason that conflict in Gaza started in October 2023. Egypt additionally performed an important function in mediating that battle.