Worldwide support for peace: Over 50 countries have already registered for the Ukraine peace summit planned in Switzerland.
According to President Viola Amherd, neutral Switzerland has received more than 50 registrations from the over 160 invited delegations for a peace summit to be held next month. As “Reuters” reports, Bern hopes that the summit will pave the way for a peace process in Ukraine.
Amherd, who, according to the news agency’s report, agreed to host the summit in January at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, made the comments during a press conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin. The Swiss government is aiming for broad participation in the summit, but China has not yet announced whether it will take part, Amherd said. According to “Reuters”, countries from South America, Africa and the Middle East have confirmed that they will take part.
Around half of the countries that have confirmed their participation are non-European and the list of participants is likely to change until the last minute, the Swiss president added.
Surprisingly, Russia was not invited to the talks. Diplomats and foreign policy experts therefore assume that the talks scheduled to take place near Lucerne will likely be more aimed at developing a consensus on how to contain the risks posed by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and can be reduced.
Amherd was also asked about a suggestion that came from Germany. This means that Switzerland itself would forego or postpone the delivery of a Patriot missile defense system that was actually due from the USA. This would allow Ukraine to obtain another Patriot system more quickly.
The Swiss President stated that her cabinet had not yet discussed this issue, but that she was already having discussions on it.