Ukraine peace summit to be held today is unlikely to produce substantial results

Ukraine peace summit to be held today is unlikely to produce substantial results

Ukraine peace summit to be held today is unlikely to produce substantial results

Photo: A Ukrainian soldier fires an artillery shell on the front line in Kharkiv. /AP

The Ukrainian Peace Summit will be held on the shores of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland from June 15 to 16. The host country Switzerland said that the summit aims to start the Ukrainian peace process. However, Russia was not invited to attend the summit, and the level of officials sent by some countries to attend the summit was not as expected. Public opinion believes that the summit will not be able to achieve Ukraine’s goal of isolating Russia. Russian President Putin said on the 14th that “NATO-style diplomacy” is having a counterproductive effect. He proposed that as long as the Ukrainian army withdraws from the four regions in eastern Ukraine that have joined the Russian Federation, Russia will immediately cease fire and start negotiations.

[Ta Kung Pao]French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Schulz, British Prime Minister Sunak, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who just attended the G7 summit in Italy, will travel to Switzerland to attend the Ukraine Peace Summit.

But US President Biden chose to return to the United States to attend a campaign fundraising event with former President Obama and a group of Hollywood stars. US Vice President Harris and National Security Advisor Sullivan will attend the peace summit.

Russia: Negotiations will begin as soon as Ukrainian troops withdraw from four areas in eastern Ukraine

However, in addition to the above-mentioned Western countries, countries with relatively friendly relations with Russia, Turkey and Hungary, will only send their foreign ministers to attend the meeting. India said it would send officials of “appropriate level” to attend the meeting. The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand chose to send deputy ministerial-level officials to attend.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on the 14th that China has been maintaining close communication with relevant parties including Switzerland and Ukraine on the issue of holding the conference, and encouraged the conference to invite all parties to participate equally and discuss all options fairly. China and Brazil reached a six-point consensus on promoting a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis last month, which has received positive responses from more than 100 countries, reflecting the general expectations of the international community. China welcomes more countries to support and join the “six-point consensus.”

Given that Russia, a party to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, was not invited to attend the summit, the outside world’s expectations for the outcome of the summit are limited. Observers pointed out that the biggest highlight of this Ukrainian peace summit is “who will come and who will not come”, that is, how countries will choose sides on the issue of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Nebenzia, said recently that without Russia’s participation, the Ukrainian peace negotiations will be a “road of no return”; the main goal of the summit is to issue an ultimatum to Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a speech on the 14th that Russia is always willing to negotiate with Ukraine on the Ukrainian issue, but the precondition for the negotiations is that the Ukrainian army withdraws completely from the four regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia. After the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops, Russia will immediately cease fire, and then the two sides will start negotiations, including issues related to Ukraine’s non-joining NATO. Ukraine’s neutrality, non-alignment and non-nuclear status, as well as Ukraine’s “demilitarization” and “denazification” remain Russia’s principled positions.

Putin pointed out that the security roadmap drawn up by Western countries has become invalid and the global security situation is close to a point of no return. For Europe, the main threat does not come from Russia, but from its growing and comprehensive dependence on the United States. Russia has once again put forward a real peace proposal today. If the West and Ukraine reject it, they will be responsible for the bloodshed.

Putin warned that as the situation on the battlefield changes, the conditions for future peace talks will also change.

Ukraine’s security agreement with G7 could become an empty talk at any time

Later that day, the Ukrainian presidential office rejected Putin’s proposal for peace talks, saying the initiative seemed to assume that Kiev gave up its sovereignty, and that Putin’s remarks at this time were an attempt to seize the initiative before the Ukrainian peace summit in Switzerland. In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said that Ukraine’s remarks were intended to deprive Ukrainian citizens of a real chance for peace.

The media noted that during the G7 summit in Italy, Ukraine signed a ten-year security agreement with the United States and Japan, which means that each G7 country has signed a security agreement with Ukraine. Biden said that the United States will ensure Ukraine’s ability to defend itself by providing weapons, ammunition, intelligence, training, economic support and military-industrial system construction, “rather than sending US troops.”

U.S. officials say that because the agreement is not a treaty and will not be ratified by the U.S. Congress, Trump may withdraw from the agreement if he wins this year’s election.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said that these agreements cannot change anything, but only confirm the West’s large-scale military and economic assistance to Ukraine, “even if officials from Western countries believe that these agreements are empty and have no binding force.”

(Reuters/RIA Novosti/AP)

source: china