The participating countries applaud the “positive” contribution of China and see a continuation at the summit level “plausible” at the end of the year
The representatives of the more than 30 participating countries in the security meeting on Ukraine held in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) agree on the need to reach a peace agreement that fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, and the creation of specific working groups on the most outstanding aspects of the ten-point proposal presented at the time by the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, to cease hostilities with Russia.
The meeting is considered the continuation of the meeting held in June in Copenhagen (Denmark) and a Saudi mediation drive to bring together the different positions of the participating countries on the end of the war in Ukraine, including India or China, closer to the Moscow authorities and present at the talks.
All the participants have agreed that “respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine must be at the center of any peace agreement” with a view to “restoring the supremacy of the United Nations Charter and respect for international law “, according to European sources at the meeting.
Regarding the plan presented by Zelenski, the so-called “Formula for Peace”, there is a consensus in Jeddah that it is necessary to create working groups on the “most outstanding aspects” of the proposal, among which “global food security, environmental security, the release of prisoners of war and kidnapped children, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid”.
These working groups will be set up in the future and deliver their conclusions to the different security agencies of the participating countries, add the European sources.
Likewise, in parallel to the creation of these groups, the team of ambassadors in Ukraine of the participating countries will continue to carry out technical work to cement these proposals.
European sources highlight the role played by China during this meeting, in which it has participated “actively” and has even been favorable “to the idea of a third meeting” at the security level.
This meeting could even evolve into a security summit of heads of state and government of the countries meeting in Jeddah, an idea that “is still a bit up in the air but could be considered plausible by the end of the year,” according to the sources. .
The meeting, however, is also characterized by the absence of Russia, which has been excluded from these talks and has assured on countless occasions that it will not even sit down at the table to discuss Zelensky’s peace plan.
The Ukrainian Peace Formula, it should be remembered, calls for the departure of all Russian troops from the country, including the Crimean peninsula, under Russian control since 2014 and which, according to Moscow, has been legally incorporated into its territory. In previous responses, Russia has insisted that any peace negotiations on Ukraine must take into account “the new territorial realities” that appeared nine years ago and demands security guarantees on the deployment of NATO in eastern Europe.
Finally, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zajarova, indicated in a recent interview with the Russian channel RBC that “as everyone knows”, any conclusion reached in a political meeting without the presence of Russia “is meaningless and is it is nonsense”, although he has expressed his country’s willingness to discuss the results of the meeting.