{"id":73634,"date":"2024-06-15T11:38:04","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T11:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/15\/ukraine-hosts-peace-talks-in-switzerland-though-russia-isnt-invited\/"},"modified":"2024-06-15T11:38:04","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T11:38:04","slug":"ukraine-hosts-peace-talks-in-switzerland-though-russia-isnt-invited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/15\/ukraine-hosts-peace-talks-in-switzerland-though-russia-isnt-invited\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine Hosts Peace Talks in Switzerland, Though Russia Isn\u2019t Invited"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/15\/multimedia\/15russia-ceasefire-summit-1-kcqm\/15russia-ceasefire-summit-1-kcqm-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Ukraine Hosts Peace Talks in Switzerland, Though Russia Isn\u2019t Invited\" title=\"Ukraine Hosts Peace Talks in Switzerland, Though Russia Isn\u2019t Invited\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">What is the value of peace talks that aren\u2019t actually talks between the warring sides?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was due to open a peace conference in Switzerland on Saturday that is intended to shore up support for his country\u2019s negotiating positions with backing from as many nations as possible. Yet even as the two-day gathering has emerged as the most widely embraced diplomatic effort to date to end the war, for now, the effort excludes Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The conference, at an Alpine resort near Lucerne, Switzerland, is instead a show of support for some of the points that Ukraine has laid out in its proposal and that it has asserted are necessary to bring a lasting peace. The plan has drawn criticism from some countries, like China and Brazil, that say Russia and Ukraine need to negotiate directly for any chance to end the fighting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYou don\u2019t negotiate with your friends,\u201d Celso Amorim, a chief foreign policy adviser for President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva of Brazil, said in an interview. \u201cYou negotiate with your adversaries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Zelensky has said that Ukraine\u2019s intention is to negotiate with Russia collectively \u2014 after building consensus among Kyiv\u2019s allies and as many neutral nations as possible. Mr. Zelensky\u2019s 10-point peace plan involves Russia\u2019s withdrawing in full from Ukrainian territory, paying reparations and facing justice over any war crimes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/14\/world\/europe\/russia-ukraine-putin-cease-fire.html\" title=\"\">offered his own cease-fire plan<\/a>, calling for Ukraine to cede territory and for Western nations to lift their economic sanctions. Ukraine denounced Mr. Putin\u2019s suggestion as intended to undermine the weekend\u2019s talks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As Ukraine worked to build momentum for the Swiss conference this year, it promoted a gathering that could endorse all 10 of its negotiating positions. But it then dialed them back to three \u2014 nuclear safety, food security, and humanitarian issues like exchanging prisoners of war and returning Ukrainian children unlawfully taken to Russia \u2014 to draw in countries that were reluctant to endorse the points deemed less feasible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe have moved away from difficult things that can divide countries, and we have taken only three points for the first summit,\u201d Mr. Zelensky said in an interview with Central Asian news media last month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky has said, is hoping for consensus on the three points, and the conference is expected to produce at least a draft on those matters. Once the points are agreed on by the countries attending the gathering, he says, they will be passed to Russia, possibly with the United Nations as an intermediary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThen we\u2019ll see if Russia wants to end the war,\u201d Mr. Zelensky said of the diplomatic strategy in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/21\/world\/europe\/ukraine-zelensky-interview.html\" title=\"\">an interview with The New York Times<\/a> in Kyiv last month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The question of how Russia and Ukraine could engage in future talks is expected to be one of the subjects of discussion, people involved in preparing for the conference said. Mr. Zelensky\u2019s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Tuesday that he hoped the conference would lay groundwork for future talks with Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Both Russia and Ukraine are now maneuvering to gain support from other nations for their preferred formats for eventual talks, if they come.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">China and Brazil are backing a separate negotiating proposal, and neither of those countries was expected to send a high-level delegation for Ukraine\u2019s conference this weekend. Switzerland said that delegations from 100 countries and organizations, including 57 heads of state and government, were expected to attend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There have been setbacks. President Biden, who has already traveled to Europe twice in recent weeks for a D-Day memorial and a Group of 7 summit, is skipping the gathering. Vice President Kamala Harris is attending instead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The absence of China, the country with the most economic and diplomatic leverage over Russia, has also cast into doubt the relevance of the conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And Brazil has avoided any high-level presence, though Mr. Amorim, the presidential adviser, was in any case nearby in Geneva for a United Nations trade conference. Mr. Amorim said in the interview that peace talks not involving Russia were futile.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019m not defending one side or the other, but I, for one, am very clear that nothing will come from this meeting in Switzerland,\u201d he said. \u201cI respect the intentions, but it\u2019s obvious that nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">China has said that 45 countries \u201cresponded positively\u201d to the Brazilian and Chinese proposal for talks, without naming the countries. Mr. Amorim said that he had no precise information about how many or which countries supported the conditions, but he noted that the participation of China, as the country with the most influence over Russia, was key.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ukraine has rejected such talks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Turkey, another country that has sought to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, will be represented by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who met with Mr. Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A Turkish diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity under the country\u2019s diplomatic protocol, said that Turkey considered the Swiss talks important but that a conference with Russia\u2019s participation would have a greater chance of success.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Oleksii Polegkyi, academic director of the Center for Public Diplomacy in Ukraine, told Ukrainian television news on Thursday that Kyiv\u2019s strategy for the summit could end up being a diplomatic misstep.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The gathering could end, he said, without a statement affirming Ukraine\u2019s internationally recognized borders, an absence that could allow traction on territorial concessions in an eventual settlement before extracting anything from Russia in return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In any case, he said, \u201cour expectations from this summit may be somewhat overstated, because peace will not be achieved through summits.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Maria Zolkina, director of conflict studies at the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, a nongovernmental group, said the value to Ukraine of the diplomacy around the gathering was broader than just the formal effort to shore up support for the three points in Kyiv\u2019s peace plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The effort is helping promote Ukraine\u2019s vision of a postwar order in Eastern Europe that would prevent future Russian expansionism, she said, adding that Ukraine wanted to muster support for talks on its terms, \u201cnot to start from Chinese, Russian or someone else\u2019s proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Maria Varenikova<!-- --> contributed reporting from Kyiv, and <!-- -->Safak Timur<!-- --> from Istanbul. <!-- -->Anastasia Kuznietsova<!-- --> also contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/15\/world\/europe\/ukraine-peace-talks-switzerland-russia.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the value of peace talks that aren\u2019t actually talks between the warring sides? President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was due to open a peace conference in Switzerland on Saturday that is intended to shore up support for his country\u2019s negotiating positions with backing from as many nations as possible. Yet even as the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/15\/multimedia\/15russia-ceasefire-summit-1-kcqm\/15russia-ceasefire-summit-1-kcqm-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3313,12395,13441,3166,202,2338,66,1130],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73636,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73634\/revisions\/73636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}