While the co-hosts from Switzerland acknowledged that they are still a long way from being prepared to engage Russia, more than 80 nations convened on Sunday to discuss finding a common ground on Ukraine’s peace formula. Nearly two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, national security advisors from 83 nations convened for a fourth round of talks centered on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s 10-point proposals for a just and sustainable peace in his country.
Ignazio Cassis, the foreign minister of Switzerland, and Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelensky’s office in Ukraine, co-chaired the negotiations.
“The purpose is to prepare so that we are ready and ripe to launch a process with Russia — when the time comes,” Cassis mentioned in a press conference.
The gathering took place on the eve of the world’s corporate and political elite’s five-day World Economic Forum summit in the opulent ski town of Davos in eastern Switzerland.
In Cassis’ words, “here we try to speak together” and create a common language, as opposed to organizations like the G7, G20, or European Union formulating their own viewpoints or navigating the “too polarised” UN Security Council.
Brazil, India, and South Africa—nations that form the BRICS alliance with Russia—took part in the discussions.
“We will need to find a path to include Russia in the process. There will be no peace without Russia having its word to say,” Cassis said.
“But this does not mean — quite the contrary — that we should just be depressed and sit there and wait for Russia to do something. Every minute that we wait, dozens of civilians in Ukraine are killed or wounded. We have no right to wait forever.”
Cassis stated that although a higher-level conference was possible, this would probably be the final one held in the format of national security advisors. According to him, the process was designed to identify shared strategies for bringing about peace that might be used to resolve other disputes.
