MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/. Consultations on prospects for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine were held in the Saudi city of Jeddah on August 5-6. Representatives from more than 40 countries took part. Russia was not invited to the meeting.
No official communique came out of the meeting, at which the Ukrainian side presented President Vladimir Zelensky’s so-called peace formula. However, other peace initiatives were also featured at the consultations.
TASS has put together the highlights of the talks in Saudi Arabia.
Participants in the consultations
According to the Saudi Press Agency, taking part in the consultations were national security advisers and representatives of more than 40 countries and international organizations, including Argentina, Brazil, the UK, Germany, Egypt, India, Qatar, China, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Turkey, Ukraine, France, Chile and the United Nations.
The Ukrainian delegation held bilateral talks with emissaries from more than 30 states during the consultations on August 5-6. Among them were delegations from Bahrain, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Canada, Qatar, Norway, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, the US, Turkey, Finland, France, Sweden, South Africa and Japan, as well as an official from the European Commission. As the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Andrey Yermak, specified, many bilateral meetings focused on the implementation of the so-called Ukrainian peace formula proposed by President Vladimir Zelensky.
Peace initiatives
Earlier, Kiev said that it wanted to convene a meeting to promote the so-called peace formula of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Participants in the consultations in Jeddah made the decision to create working groups to look into it.
According to the DPA news agency, which cites two diplomatic sources, it was initially planned to discuss only Zelensky's so-called peace plan, but one more peace initiative was announced in Jeddah. It was presented by the host country, Saudi Arabia, backed by a number of other states. Allegedly, part of the plan is to maintain Ukraine's integrity, cease fire on all fronts, launch peace talks under UN supervision, and exchange prisoners.
Chinese Special Representative for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui conveyed Beijing’s position with regard to settling the Ukrainian conflict, the Chinese Foreign Ministry reported, noting that it was important to adhere to the Chinese peace plan on the situation in Ukraine.
The Chinese initiative, which was made public in February, has 12 points, including calls for a ceasefire, respect for the legitimate security interests of all countries, and refusal to impose unilateral sanctions without a relevant decision from the UN Security Council.
According to Ajit Doval, the national security adviser to the Indian prime minister, each of the proposals put forward has positive aspects, but none of them is acceptable to Moscow and Kiev.
Outcome of the consultations
No official communique followed the meeting. According to a European diplomat quoted by The Financial Times, the participants in the talks in Jeddah agreed that "respect of territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine needs to be at the heart of any peaceful settlement."
In his turn, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Yermak, spoke positively of the meeting, admitting however that different views were presented.
The main outcome of the meeting was the decision to continue negotiations on Ukraine. New consultations may take place before the G20 summit in September. This information comes from the Bloomberg agency, citing a high-ranking representative of the French Foreign Ministry.
Thus, a new meeting on Ukraine may be hosted by a country of the Global South, the Le Point weekly has quoted diplomatic sources as saying.
Moscow's reaction
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has said that Russia will discuss the outcome of the consultations on Ukraine in Jeddah with its BRICS partners who participated in the meeting. He also expressed the opinion that the West's efforts to mobilize the Global South to support Zelensky’s peace formula are bound to fail.
It made no sense to hold the consultations in Jeddah without Russia's participation, Russian Permanent Envoy to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said, for his part.
By promoting Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s "peace formula," Kiev and the West are trying to play down the initiatives of other countries, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
"By promoting Zelensky’s ‘formula,’ the Kiev regime and the West are trying to downplay the great importance of initiatives put forward by other countries and monopolize the right to present them," she noted, commenting on the Jeddah meeting on Ukraine.
According to the diplomat, "Zelensky’s formula" is a meaningless ultimatum to Russia. "None of its ten points is designed to find a solution to the crisis through talks and diplomatic efforts, while all of them together make up a meaningless ultimatum to Russia, aimed at prolonging military activities. It is impossible to resolve the issue on such a basis," Zakharova added.
However, she pointed out that Russia appreciated the mediation and humanitarian initiatives coming from "our friends in the Global South."
The outcome of the Jeddah meeting has demonstrated that the attitude to the situation around Ukraine in the world is becoming more realistic, Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma (lower parliament house) and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia said. According to Slutsky, attempts to present Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s so-called peace plan at the meeting in Jeddah revealed "the collective West’s intention to project its anti-Russian agenda onto the global South region." "This attempt turned into a complete fiasco in Jeddah," he stressed.