What good could discussions on a very hypothetical peace be, when the artillery thunders on the front line and the missiles continue to target civilians daily in the cities of Ukraine, like Wednesday June 12, when nine people were killed and 29 injured in a Russian strike on the center of Kryvy Rig, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky? This nagging question will hover this weekend over the strange meeting entitled “High-level conference on peace in Ukraine”, which is to be held in the luxurious Bürgenstock hotel complex (canton of Nidwalden, central Switzerland) at the invitation of Swiss diplomacy, after Mr. Zelensky asked him, in January, to imagine a summit of this kind.
Bern took the matter very seriously, arguing that its status as a neutral state and its long-standing practice of mediating in conflicts put it in a good position to offer its “good offices”, an antiphon echoed over and over again by Ignazio Cassis , the Swiss Minister of Foreign Affairs. For three months, he has spared no effort to convince as many countries as possible to participate in the “peace conference” (and not “peace”), by traveling for example to New Delhi and Beijing.
After pretending to be interested for a long time, the Chinese authorities declined the offer. They will not come to Bürgenstock. Their presence would perhaps have made it possible to unlock the participation of other BRICS members. Friday June 14, late in the afternoon, Berne unveiled a first official list of confirmed participants. Apart from India (which sends its… ambassador to Russia to Switzerland), no other major actor from the Global South (Brazil, South Africa) is present, the two countries content to send observers.
Saudi Arabia is represented by its Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud. In fact, the casting of the event alone represents the main issue of this meeting. To take part or not almost means de facto choosing sides between the defense of Ukraine and support, even passive, for the Kremlin. Thus, on the African side, the Ivorian president, Alassane Ouattara, is the only one to make the trip.
Moscow denounces a “farce”
The Russians will not be present. For weeks, they have denounced this diplomatic exercise as a “farce, an absurdity”. Aware of the refusal they would have suffered, the Swiss did not take the trouble to send an invitation, even if Ignazio Cassis repeated Monday at a press conference in Berne that“There will be no peace process without Russia. The question is not if Russia will be on board but when.”
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