What are the results? ,In-depth | Ukraine Peace Summit held in Switzerland Cui Hongjian | Including | In-depth | Ukraine

According to the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, the Ukraine Peace Summit was held in Bürgenstock, Switzerland from June 15 to 16 local time. The summit aims to launch the peace process and identify the elements and steps to achieve this process.

Despite the ambitious goals of the summit, the outside world believes that the effectiveness of the summit is questionable and it is unlikely to achieve substantive results, given that the summit was promoted by Ukraine and its peace plan, supported by the West and lacks representativeness - Russia, a party involved, was excluded.

According to the organizers, representatives from about 100 countries and organizations attended the summit, including more than 50 heads of state or government, including the President of France, the Chancellor of Germany, the Prime Minister of Britain, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Prime Minister of Japan, etc.

Switzerland said the purpose of the summit was to reach a consensus on the path to a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and to lay the foundation for a future peace process. Nuclear safety, freedom of navigation, food security, humanitarianism and the development of a vision for the next steps, including Russia, were key topics.

Professor Cui Hongjian, director of the Center for EU and Regional Development at Beijing Foreign Studies University, believes that the real background of this summit can be interpreted from three perspectives.

From Ukraine's perspective, in the past two years, Ukraine has been intent on continuously improving the visibility and acceptance of its peace plan and launching a diplomatic offensive against Russia.

Over the past two weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has launched a whirlwind diplomacy, flying to countries including the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Qatar and Italy in an effort to step up pressure on Russia to reach a ceasefire on his terms.

From the perspective of the international community, the voices and forces calling for a ceasefire and peace are gradually growing.

"Russia and Ukraine are heading towards a dead end on the road of using military means to resolve the issue. If they continue to move forward, the risk of escalation of the conflict will increase. Some countries are attending the conference because they are worried about being affected by the escalation of the conflict."

From Switzerland's perspective, the reason for hosting the summit is that after the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, Switzerland's neutral position has been questioned to a certain extent. Switzerland hopes to emphasize its neutral position through hosting the summit and that it can still play a role in the political resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the future.

However, what has attracted attention is that Russia, as a party concerned, was not invited, and leaders of influential major countries such as China and Brazil were also absent from the summit.

On the Russian side, Cui Hongjian pointed out that Ukraine’s push for the Swiss Peace Summit is intended to launch a diplomatic offensive against Russia and sell its own peace plan.

Public opinion believes that Ukrainian President Zelensky intends to use the Swiss Peace Summit to gain support for his ten-point peace plan first proposed at the end of 2022. The plan includes requirements for Russia to withdraw its troops, stop hostilities, and restore Ukraine's territorial integrity.

In response, Putin put forward the latest ceasefire conditions on the eve of the summit, including Ukraine withdrawing its troops from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, and giving up joining NATO.

According to Cankaoxiaoxi.com, citing German public opinion, the Western idea is to gather as many countries as possible in Switzerland to support a statement that clearly supports Ukraine. The plan is to force Russia into a corner politically, which is why Moscow was not invited.

As for why China was absent from the meeting, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs clearly explained its position: China attaches great importance to Switzerland's hosting of the first Ukrainian Peace Summit, and has been in close communication with Switzerland and relevant parties since the beginning of this year. China has always insisted that international peace conferences should have the three important elements of "recognition by both Russia and Ukraine, equal participation by all parties, and fair discussion of all peace plans", otherwise it will be difficult to play a substantive role in restoring peace.

"Based on feedback from all parties and the published meeting arrangements, the three elements proposed by China seem difficult to achieve. There is a clear gap between the meeting arrangements and China's requirements and the general expectations of the international community. It is difficult for China to attend the meeting. We have informed the relevant parties of China's considerations and concerns," said the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian reiterated on the 14th that China welcomes and supports all efforts conducive to achieving peace, and its position on the Swiss Peace Conference is fair, just and open.

Lin Jian also pointed out that the China-Pakistan "Six-Point Consensus" has received positive responses from more than 100 countries, reflecting the general expectations of the international community and being the "greatest common denominator" in today's world. We welcome more countries to support and join the "Six-Point Consensus".

Cui Hongjian said that the three elements listed by China show the style of China's ideal peace summit, not the kind of peace summit promoted unilaterally.

"China's position is mainly based on three priority demands," Cui Hongjian said: achieving a ceasefire as soon as possible, reducing the risk of conflict escalation, and controlling the risk of conflict spillover. However, this summit included more political goals of Ukraine, including discussions on Ukraine's ten-point peace plan and the identification of the nature of the conflict.

Therefore, "from China's perspective, although the Ukrainian Peace Summit held in Switzerland is in the name of peace, the conditions are not yet ripe for a true peace summit, and China is not ready to achieve peace," Cui Hongjian said.

In addition, public opinion is also worried that this summit, which is strongly supported by the West, may become a platform and tool for creating confrontation between camps.

In Zelensky's eyes, the Swiss peace summit was a success and is making history.

However, the Russian side pointed out that seeking a solution to the Ukrainian crisis without Russia's participation is completely illogical and unpromising.

Given that Russia was excluded, China was absent from the summit, some "global south" countries only sent low-level representatives to attend, and recent military setbacks put Kiev at a disadvantage, and the Gaza conflict diverted the world's attention from the Ukrainian crisis, the outside world is skeptical about whether this Ukrainian peace summit can achieve substantive results.

Countries including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Kenya see Russia's absence as an obstacle and that its participation is necessary for meaningful progress.

Even Austria described the summit as a "Western echo chamber."

In fact, as the biggest supporter behind Ukraine, the United States also seemed half-hearted about the Swiss Peace Summit, which seemed to reveal that it did not have high expectations for the results of the summit.

Due to conflicts with domestic fundraising activities, President Biden did not attend the meeting. Instead, Vice President Harris and President's National Security Advisor Sullivan attended.

Although the US argued that Biden and Zelensky had two substantive meetings during the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings and the G7 summit, Biden's skipping of the Swiss summit was seen as prioritizing the election over the Ukrainian crisis.

Zelensky was also disappointed, complaining that Biden's absence from the summit was like "standing up and applauding Putin."

Harris, who attended the meeting on behalf of Biden, seemed to be there only as a "courtesy". It was revealed that she only stayed in Switzerland for a few hours and left. She would not attend the formal summit on the 16th, but Sullivan would attend instead.

In Cui Hongjian's view, this summit was promoted by Ukraine, supported by the West and lacked sufficient representativeness - the parties concerned, such as Russia and China, were absent, which will undoubtedly limit the effectiveness of the summit.

At the same time, the situation at the venue is also a window for observing the effectiveness of the summit.

"Will it be a one-sided or diversified discussion, or even an intersection?" Cui Hongjian said that if Ukraine and the West only unilaterally promote peace plans and protect Ukraine's political goals, while ignoring the concerns of other non-Western countries, then the effectiveness of the meeting will inevitably be greatly reduced, and the summit will not become a turning point in promoting a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis.

According to Germany, the peace summit did not discuss Putin's latest ceasefire proposal put forward before the summit.

According to the draft summit statement that has been exposed, in addition to accusing Russia and urging respect for Ukraine's territorial integrity, it also emphasized that achieving peace in Ukraine requires the participation and dialogue of all parties to the conflict.

At present, Russia and Ukraine’s goals and positions on ceasefire talks are far apart. What is the prospect for a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian crisis?

"No matter what the motivation is, Ukraine's push for a peace summit at least shows that it realizes that it is difficult to resolve all problems between Ukraine and Russia by military means alone." Cui Hongjian said that the country is currently at a critical juncture, that is, to shift from blindly pursuing military means to seeking a balance between military and political solutions, but the conditions for a turning point are not yet in place.

First, although Russia and Ukraine have begun to consider a political solution, they have not given up on military means as the main means of solving the problem.

Second, other pro-Ukrainian countries and forces, including those in the West, have mixed in selfish considerations, making the nature of the Russia-Ukraine conflict increasingly complicated.

Third, the United States and NATO countries view the Russia-Ukraine conflict not only as a Russia-Ukraine issue, but also as an irreconcilable security contradiction between Russia and Europe.

"These external factors will to some extent weaken the willingness of Russia and Ukraine to resolve the issue through direct negotiations."

As the Chinese side has said, not attending the conference does not mean not supporting peace. Even if some countries attend the conference, they may not really hope for a ceasefire or an end to the war. The key still lies in actual actions.