(Burgenstock) The Ukraine Peace Summit which starts on Saturday around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and representatives of some 90 countries displays measured ambitions in the absence of Russia and China and is intended to be a first step on the path Peace.
“Together we are taking the first step towards a just peace based on the Charter of the United Nations and the fundamental principles of international law,” the Ukrainian president said on X.
Guests at the summit, which is being held in Switzerland, “come from all continents and regions of the world, representing different perspectives but united by respect for international law and others,” he stressed.
The meeting, which is being held in the ultra-chic resort of Bürgenstock, will begin with a plenary session on Saturday afternoon, followed by dinner.
PHOTO GABRIEL MONNET, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
View of the Bürgenstock station where the summit is organized
“I think history is being made at this summit,” Mr. Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin loudly invited himself into the conversation by demanding the de facto surrender of Ukraine before any talks.
“What we need is not a dictated peace, but a just and fair peace that takes into account the integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine,” retorted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz , Saturday on the ARD channel, in the wake of the condemnation by the United States and NATO of the conditions of the master of the Kremlin, who launched the large-scale invasion of the Ukrainian neighbor in February 2022.
Mr. Zelensky then denounced the Russian president’s “Hitler”-style “ultimatum”.
Outlining a path to peace
American Vice President Kamala Harris comes with new aid of more than 1.5 billion dollars, mainly for the energy sector and for humanitarian aid. President Joe Biden preferred to return to the United States after the G7 in Italy.
PHOTO MICHAEL BUHOLZER, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
US Vice President Kamala Harris
French President Emmanuel Macron will participate in the summit on Saturday alongside other heads of state and government from the G7 (Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom).
The Swiss hosts wanted to bring together as many countries as possible, particularly those from the Global South. But among the emerging BRICS countries, only Saudi Arabia sends its head of diplomacy.
As for China, it had warned that it would not participate as long as Russia was not in the round table.
EU leaders as well as the presidents of Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Finland and Poland will be present.
Doubtful
In Ukraine on the eastern front of Donetsk, where violent fighting is taking place, Maxime and his unit of tankers are doubtful about this major diplomatic raid. This thirty-year-old “would like to hope” that the summit will lead to something “but experience shows that nothing will come of it,” the soldier told AFP.
In Kyiv, Victoria, who works in the energy sector, “doesn’t have high hopes” either. “I would like us to find a path to peace, because I am exhausted by this war […] but I’m not very optimistic,” explains this thirty-year-old.
Experts are equally cautious.
“Meaningful negotiations that could truly end the devastating war in Ukraine remain elusive,” says the International Crisis Group think tank.
Billions and alliances
Volodymyr Zelensky, who arrived on Friday evening, has just spent the last few weeks pleading his cause throughout the world and is arriving from the G7 Summit in Italy with a loan of 50 billion dollars in his pocket.
The funds will be guaranteed by the interest earned on Russian assets frozen since the start of the invasion. For Vladimir Putin, it is “a theft that will not go unpunished”.
The Ukrainian president also signed security agreements with the United States and Japan on the G7 sidelines after having done the same with several other allies in recent months.
He is once again receiving weapons from the United States after long months of waiting which have put the Ukrainian army in great difficulty and Washington, as well as other allied countries, have authorized him – under conditions – to use their weapons to strike directly on Russian territory.
Finally on Friday evening, the 27 gave their “agreement in principle” to the opening of EU accession negotiations.
On Sunday, three subjects will be discussed in detail: nuclear safety, freedom of navigation and food security, and humanitarian aspects, in particular the fate of Ukrainian children deported to Russia.
A second summit is planned, in which Kyiv hopes a Russian delegation will participate.
Russia may denigrate the meeting in Switzerland, but it is “doing everything possible to show its dissatisfaction” and thus proving that it is “worried”, Samuel Charap, of the American think tank RAND, told AFP.