Is it coming soon? Peace in Ukraine? On Saturday, June 15, 2024, the Peace Summit starts in Bürgenstock near Lucerne. Representatives of… it is not known how many countries are to come to Switzerland. What exactly they want to achieve is also unclear. Will the summit end the conflict in Ukraine? Unlikely. So what is it about?
The world slept for a while
The idea of a summit on Ukraine was born in 2022, right after Kiev’s victorious counteroffensive and the liberation of most of the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions in the east, as well as Kherson in the south of the country.
As BBC commentators note, at that time conditions actually existed to force Russia to make concessions with the strong voice of most of the world’s countries. But the world slept through this moment. The Russian oppositionist and philosopher says the same thing. Professor Nikolaj Karpicki, who is hiding in Ukraine since 2015. In his opinion, the West has allowed Russia to switch its economy to war mode and it will be extremely difficult to reverse this process, and the Kremlin will not stop itself.
In addition, in the meantime, a conflict has broken out in Israel, which is distracting the eyes of, for example, the United States from Kyiv. Tonight we will find out how many countries will actually send their officials to Switzerland. For several days now, we have been receiving news that their number is constantly decreasing.
How many countries will take part in the Peace Summit in Switzerland?
Initially, 160 officials received invitations, a month ago Ukraine reported 107 positive responses, today there are talks of even less than 80 countries that will ultimately take part in the Peace Summit. That was definitely not the point. Only a loud and solidarity declaration from most of the world’s countries could change anything. We will see if there is enough world unity to change the rules of the war in Ukraine. Its citizens and the initiator of the summit, President Volodymyr Zelensky, are strongly counting on this.
Nevertheless, delegations from some countries withdrew from participation in the congress. China’s intensive policy of discouraging the Ukrainian peace formula in the international arena probably played no small role here. Their representatives were to talk to at least several diplomats, including: from Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Beijing has its own plan for peace in Ukraine, which Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov have already agreed to.
The summit organizers did not specifically invite Russia to it. According to the plan, Moscow was to receive peace documents at the next stage of talks, with the support of most countries in the world. However, this scenario was thwarted by China’s opposition. US President Joe Biden will also be one of the big absentees, as Vice President Kamala Harris will be there instead.
Representatives of the Swiss authorities admit that the number of participants is constantly changing, in fact in real time, and their exact list will be made public only on Friday evening, a few hours before its opening – reported the BBC’s Ukrainian editorial office.
China and peace in Ukraine
According to Ignazio Cassis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, Beijing stated at the stage of preliminary consultations on the organization of the summit that its representatives would take part in it only if both sides of the “conflict” – as they call the war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine – are represented at the table negotiations. Therefore, since Moscow’s presence at the Peace Summit in Switzerland is not planned, China decided not to send its representatives.
It can be assumed that Beijing’s position has had an impact on those countries of the Global South where Chinese influence is strong – we read in the BBC.
It cannot be said that Ukraine did not try to change the situation. At the end of May, Volodymyr Zelensky tried to gain the support of the Chinese leader. In his report from the bombed Kharkov, he addressed, among others, to Xi Jinping asking for China to join the peace process.
The plan backfired and Zelensky’s rhetoric changed dramatically in Singapore. He called Beijing a “tool in Putin’s hands” and accused China of persuading some countries not to participate in the Swiss summit.
“This is not just support for Russia, this is actually support for the war. If you do not take part and do not support the peace process that we want to initiate in Switzerland, it means that you consider what is happening in Ukraine “normal,” President Zelensky thundered.
China denied the accusations and recalled that it still supports the idea of a high-level summit, but with the participation of both Ukraine and Russia.
The lack of Joe Biden means the lack of US support for Kyiv?
Ukrainian BBC sources involved in the organization of the summit say that Biden’s absence is, of course, unpleasant news for Ukrainians, but not tragic at all. However, the absence of a head of state, and the US representation through the second person in the country, is rather a sign that the White House treats the meeting more professionally.
The absence of Joe Biden does not change the fact that the Swiss Peace Summit on Ukraine will be an unprecedented event in the international arena. More than forty presidents and prime ministers are expected to visit, including French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Canadian Justin Trudeau, as well as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Representatives of the families of Ukrainian prisoners of war who have been in Russian captivity for two years also went to Lucerne. In Poland and Switzerland, they organize a number of happenings to remind people of the fate of the imprisoned Defenders of Mariupol and Azovstal.
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