In the middle of June, in the exclusive five-star hotel complex “Burgenstock” in the canton of Nidwalden, near the city of Lucerne, a two-day event will be held, which the organizers christened as a “peace conference”. They explained that the goal of the meeting of world leaders is to create a framework for lasting peace in Ukraine, as well as “a concrete plan for Russia’s participation in the peace process.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long announced that Ukrainian representatives have started preparations for holding a global peace summit in Switzerland.
How Zelenski imagines it
The summit should take into account “everything that has already been achieved” and determine that ending the war according to international law “should be extremely fair,” Zelensky said at a press conference in Bern, Switzerland.
Swiss President Viola Amherd stated that the goal of the conference was “to find a way to start the peace negotiation process”.
Switzerland, as the host, intends to gather as many countries as possible from different parts of the world that could “present their vision of how the negotiation process should be conducted.” But…
“We are not sure that the conference will be successful, there are no guarantees for that,” said Amherd.
Commenting on that initiative, the Russian ambassador to Switzerland, Sergei Garmonin, told the Sonntag Zeitung newspaper that it was doomed in advance, primarily because of the desire to impose “a formula of peace through a series of ultimatums to Russia”.
He pointed out that without the participation of Russia, the peace summit would mean just another round of useless consultations.
The more guests – the more uproar
Russia has repeatedly repeated that it will not participate in the conference in Switzerland because, as it says, that country renounced its neutrality towards the war in Ukraine.
On the Telegram channel, Zelensky pointed out that work on the implementation of the Peace Formula will continue at the summit after four meetings of national security advisors have already been held in Copenhagen, Jeddah, Malta and Davos.
The Swiss government also stated that the European Union and representatives of the countries of the so-called Global South, including Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, were involved in the early discussions on organizing the conference.
“Currently, there is sufficient international support for a high-level conference that would initiate the peace process,” Swiss leaders claim, and the media announced, citing sources, that US President Joe Biden, who will be visiting at the time, could also attend the conference. the G7 summit in Italy.
Russia insists that for peace it is necessary for Western countries to accept the “new reality on the ground”, while Ukraine insists on the full return of its territory and the withdrawal of the Russian army.
Ever since it agreed to host the summit at Zelensky’s persuasion, Switzerland has been trying to encourage a large number of countries to participate in the conference.
“We expect to have 80 to 100 countries. This is the number of countries, I believe, that will be able to at least try to force Russia into a fair peace,” said Zelensky.
Russia invited, not invited…
The head of Swiss diplomacy, Ignacio Cassis, said that there is no alternative for Russia’s participation in the peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine, and that holding a peace conference without Moscow is impossible.
So why and who needs this summit, they ask from various sides.
Russia signaled early on that it was not interested. Moscow says it is “pointless” and doomed to failure if Russia’s interests are not taken into account.
Moscow also decisively rejected Zelensky’s peace formula. The Kremlin states that Russia is willing to enter into negotiations on Ukraine, but that Russia’s security interests must be respected.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that he met with officials and diplomats from Switzerland, who assured him that the peace summit would include the participation of Russia and that it would be conducted under realistic conditions.
He said Swiss officials told him they “understand that nothing can be solved without Russia, it’s unfair.”
But then the Russian news agency RIA, referring to the Russian embassy in Switzerland, reported that Switzerland did not invite Russia to the summit and that Moscow would not participate, but that after the summit it would receive the adopted documents for review and evaluation.
So far, it has not been recorded in history that peace talks were conducted without one side in the conflict. Unilateral decisions were made, but negotiations are something else and involve negotiating. And in Switzerland, they will negotiate peace in Ukraine without Russia. Common sense asks how to do it. Obviously, peace is not the goal and the purpose is not hard to guess. So why this Swiss “bill without an innkeeper” if tourist reasons are not the reason.
