An international conference opening in Switzerland today (June 15) is set to discuss the first building blocks of a peace process in the Ukraine war. The Swiss conference primarily aims to mobilise international support for Ukraine - including from countries that are friendly to Russia. The Swiss hope that a further conference will be decided this year - and that this would include Moscow, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
100 Countries to Take Part in Peace Process:
Prime Ministers and other high-ranking representatives from around 100 countries -- half from Europe -- as well as from international organisations including United Nations Organization (UNO), are expected to attend. Russia was not invited. The China and Pakistan are some notable absentees who will not join the talks.
Notable attendees include UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US Vice President Kamala Harris, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Representatives of various countries are to discuss issues ranging from grain exports from Ukraine, the safety of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and humanitarian issues, including prisoner exchanges. The meeting is taking place on Ukraine's initiative, and President Volodymyr Zelensky is attending, as will many leaders, directly from the meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) meeting in southern Italy, which was largely focused on the Russian war.
Ukraine-Russia War is a Bloodbath:
Russia currently occupies around a fifth of Ukraine's territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which it illegally annexed in 2014. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed or injured in the conflict, alongside the civilian casualties. The Ukrainian population is suffering enormously from Russia's shelling of the country's infrastructure.
India Only South Asian Country Attending:
India is the only South Asian country that will attend a Swiss-hosted Ukraine peace summit over the weekend at Switzerland's Buergenstock resort near the city of Lucerne, according to a list of participating states released by the organisers.
India will be represented by Pavan Kapoor, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Refusing the invitation, China has said, "since Russia will not attend the meeting, Ukraine's unilateral attendance of the peace summit will become meaningless."
Beijing has said that rather than a peace summit, it is a platform for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to promote his "peace formula".
The summit will aim to chart a path toward peace in Ukraine.
