BERN (Reuters) – Ninety states and organisations have so far registered to take part in a summit aiming to pave the way for peace in Ukraine that Switzerland will host from June 15-16, the Swiss government said on Monday.
Russia has not been invited to the summit due to be held in central Switzerland, but the government said in a statement that the gathering will aim to “jointly define a roadmap” on how to involve both it and Ukraine in a future peace process.
Switzerland in January agreed to host the summit at the behest of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and has tried to drum up support for it among countries that have better relations with Moscow than leading Western powers.
Russia has dismissed the summit as a waste of time. It was not invited to participate, Switzerland says, because it signalled it had no interest in attending. Switzerland also stresses though, that Russia must be part of the peace process.
Its absence has encouraged powerful allies of Moscow such as China to say there is no point in peace talks unless both Russia and Ukraine take part. That has muted expectations for any kind of major breakthrough at the talks being held in Switzerland.
The summit is due to discuss areas of broad international concern, such as the need for nuclear and food security, freedom of navigation as well as humanitarian issues, such as prisoners of war, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said.
(Reporting by Dave Graham, Editing by Rachel More)
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