Swiss President invites Putin to dialogue ahead of peace conference
Swiss President Viola Amherd has written a letter to her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, inviting him "to dialogue in difficult times", as a major peace conference on Ukraine is being prepared by the authorities in Bern.
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A Swiss Defense Ministry spokesperson confirmed the sending of the letter, in which Amherd explains to Putin Switzerland’s position on respect for international law, human rights and the universal principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter, which she proposes to use as a basis for finding peace.
Switzerland has called an international peace conference for mid-June, which will be attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and could also see the presence of US President Joe Biden, among other world leaders.
However, Russia was not invited to this high-level meeting, which Putin himself criticized after noting that nothing can be decided regarding the war in Ukraine without Moscow’s participation.
Russia’s discomfort with the meeting was further evident in a statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who described Switzerland as an “unfriendly country” that he believes has abandoned the principle of neutrality that has traditionally guided its foreign policy and is therefore not suited to promote a peace process.
Faced with the war in Ukraine, Switzerland has followed the European Union’s economic sanctions policy against Russia, which the Kremlin has interpreted as a loss of neutrality.
The Swiss president’s letter became known one day after the US House of Representatives approved a $61 billion (€57 billion) military and financial aid package for Ukraine, which could give new impetus to Kyiv’s forces to face the Russian invasion.
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