Switzerland to hold Ukraine peace talks in June, Biden likely to attend: report

Swiss authorities have not revealed any details about the meeting. (representative)

According to Swiss media reports, US President Biden is expected to attend a high-level meeting on war and peace in Ukraine to be held in Switzerland in mid-June.

A date for the meeting has not yet been set, but multiple media outlets this week suggested June 16-17.

Invitations have not yet been sent out, but New Zealand’s daily newspaper cited “reliable sources” as saying the US president would attend along with senior representatives from dozens of countries.

Swiss authorities have not revealed any details about the meeting.

In January this year, Switzerland announced that it had agreed to organize talks following a meeting between Ukrainian President Zelenskiy and Swiss President Viola Amkhed following his visit to Ukraine.

At the time, Zelensky spoke of a “summit” without Russia’s participation.

But traditionally neutral Switzerland is calling it a “high-level meeting for peace in Ukraine” and is trying to attract China and other emerging powers.

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis also tried to curry favor with Moscow and met with his Russian counterpart

Art Sergei Lavrov in New York in January.

However, the Kremlin believes that Switzerland is no longer impartial because it supports EU sanctions against Russia.

According to Bloomberg, the meeting will not be held in Geneva, as some media outlets have reported, but will be held at the luxurious Bürgenstock Hotel in Lucerne in the Swiss Alps.

In January, Switzerland hosted more than 80 national security advisers for talks to seek consensus on a peace plan for Ukraine.

The meeting was based on Zelensky’s 10-point proposal to halt the war since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. “The purpose is to prepare so that we are ready to start the process with Russia when the time comes,” Cassis told a CNN news conference at the time.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)