The place might 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 might occur remains to be unclear. However discovering impartial territory for these negotiations could also be difficult as Putin faces the specter of arrest from the Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC).

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

A basic view of the outside of the Worldwide Felony 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 situation arrest warrants?

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

Since 1999, 125 nations 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 felony prices, however solely on essentially the most critical crimes: genocide, crimes in opposition to humanity, conflict crimes and the crime of aggression.

The courtroom would not have its personal police pressure or enforcement physique, so it depends on nations’ 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 kids 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 kids 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 critical prices from the ICC. Final November, the worldwide courtroom issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged conflict crimes and crimes in opposition to 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 in opposition to 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 global affairs professor for The New Faculty in New York, particularly due to the notion that the U.S. has been hypocritical on the subject of the courtroom.

When the ICC filed arrest warrants in opposition to Netanyahu, then-President Joe Biden launched an announcement that stated, “The ICC issuance of arrest warrants in opposition to Israeli leaders is outrageous. Let me be clear as soon as once more: regardless of the ICC may suggest, there isn’t a equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We’ll all the time stand with Israel in opposition to threats to its safety.”

However when the ICC issued a warrant in opposition to 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 informed NPR, “There is no such thing as a doubt that Russia is committing conflict crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, and we’ve got been clear that these accountable should be held accountable. The ICC prosecutor is an unbiased actor and makes his personal prosecutorial choices primarily based on the proof earlier than him. We help accountability for perpetrators of conflict crimes.”

Khrushcheva stated, “So for Putin, it is yet 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 of final yr.

However, Bosco stated, “Mongolia can be located proper between Russia and China — two nations that it has huge financial linkages with. And neither of these nations 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 prospect and maintain such a major assembly on unfriendly floor, Khrushcheva stated.

So this nonetheless probably guidelines out most of the 125 nations listed as ICC members. This leaves technically about 70 nations nonetheless obtainable, 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 satisfy, given each Russia and the U.S. have good relations with a number of nations there.

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

That is made much more probably because of the truth 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 huge 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, because the conflict in Gaza started in October 2023. Egypt additionally performed a vital function in mediating that battle.