New Delhi:

The Swiss government announced that it will host a high-level peace conference in June to end the Russo-Ukrainian war. Even if it’s not the first day, it expects Russia to participate. India welcomed the initiative and said: “We are open to all such peace initiatives. You know our position on the Russia-Ukraine war.”

The conference will be held on June 15-16 at the luxury resort of Bürgenstock near the central city of Lucerne and will be chaired by Swiss President Viola Armheld. “This is the first step in the process of achieving a lasting peace,” she said.

India says it is open to ideas that can lead to peace.

“We have always argued that there should be dialogue and diplomacy. Therefore, we are also involved in the Copenhagen package. We are open to ideas that can lead to peace,” the foreign ministry said.

The Swiss government said the meeting aimed to establish “a high-level dialogue forum to discuss how to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine in accordance with international law and the United Nations Charter.”

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, denounced the activity as part of plans by U.S. President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party ahead of this year’s presidential election.

Russia’s state-run TASS news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova as saying, “American Democrats need photos and videos of the incident to show that their ‘Ukraine’ project is still ongoing and that they are behind it.”

swiss peace plan

The Swiss government said in January during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that it hoped to organize a peace conference this year.

In a statement on Wednesday, it “took note of the results of the exploratory phase of the high-level peace conference in Ukraine”.

It determined that “there is currently sufficient international support for a high-level meeting to launch the peace process.”

Russia is absent

During his visit to Switzerland, Zelensky spoke of a “summit” without Russia’s participation.

But at the same time, traditionally neutral Switzerland hopes to involve Russia in later negotiations.

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis also met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in New York in January.

Russia is angry at Switzerland’s decision to follow neighboring EU in imposing sanctions, accusing the country of no longer being seen as neutral.

On Wednesday, Cassis acknowledged Russia’s absence from the talks but stressed that his goal was to include Moscow in future talks. “The peace process cannot happen without Russia, although it will not happen during the first meeting,” he said.

Switzerland did not say who would attend, but Swiss media reported that U.S. President Joe Biden would be on the list.