Switzerland, host of the Global Peace Summit this June, hopes that member-countries of the Global South attend so that “broad participation” is achieved in the first step to ending the war in Ukraine, Swiss Ambassador to the Philippines Dr. Nicolas Brühl told members of the media Tuesday night.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flew into the country and personally invited the Philippines to the summit that would be held in the five-star Burgenstock hotel above Lake Lucerne on June 15-16. Philippines has accepted Ukraine’s invitation.
The Global South, or countries from the less developed parts of the world including the Philippines, have suffered high inflation as a result of the disruption of the global supply chain following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over two years ago in February 2022.
Taking on the task of hosting the summit “is quite a challenge,” the ambassador said, noting that the list of attendees is constantly changing and expected to be finalized at the last minute.
“It’s still open. But the important issue is at the end who will be there, the level—and that will be decided in the last minute. You know, from the U.S. side, at least the vice president will come in, and the security advisor, and that is quite important,” the ambassador said.
“At the moment, from the western part of the world, a lot of important leaders are coming. They confirmed, as well [as leaders] from the [European Union], from the EU member states…But the big issue is a little bit the Global South,” he added.
The Swiss government has invited over 160 countries. It says the goal of the summit is “to provide a forum where world leaders discuss paths towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, based on international law and the UN Charter.”
During his Philippine visit, President Zelenskyy said 106 countries have already agreed to participate.
When asked at Tuesday’s press conference on the goal of the summit, Ambassador Brul said: “Broad participation would be a first success…I have to be frank, I mean, it’s quite a challenge. We decided to take over this task, but we are not naive. I mean, we know that it’s just the first step…For us it’s to show as well the world that we are ready to organize this event.”
Russia, which started the war, is not participating in the summit. Its non-participation is considered an obstacle to the summit’s success. It has questioned the neutrality of Switzerland after the latter froze an estimated US$ 14 billion in Russian assets, and suspended direct flights to Russia.
