Peace summit in Switzerland is an aunt's tea

Ricardo Sánchez Serra*.

The peace summit in Switzerland scheduled for next June 15 and 16 in the city of Lucerne, it will be an aunts' tea, a meeting of old gossips, which will not achieve peace in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The main reason is that Russia has not been invited. It is as if you are invited to a wedding, without the presence of the groom, so what does it mean to attend?

How can you achieve peace without one of the contenders being present?

Pope Francis himself has pointed out that this Peace Summit in Switzerland lacks value without the participation of all the parties involved, especially Russia. His words highlight the importance of inclusion and dialogue between all countries to reach an effective peace agreement.

Despite the good intentions that the Swiss Government has in this call, it is a useless effort, because without the presence of Russia, what peace are we talking about? What's more, the organization of the summit has cost it dearly due to both external and internal questions: the famous Swiss neutrality - forged in more than 100 years - is called into question.

The Kremlin spokesman has pointed out that “Switzerland is moving away from its status as a neutral country by not inviting Russia to the conference.” Likewise, the largest Swiss parliamentary party, the Center Democratic Union (UCD), called on the Government to invite Russia to the conference and not turn it into one about arms propaganda.

The participation of all parties is important so that “the impression does not arise that Switzerland is organizing a conference of Russia's adversaries…”.

The UCD advocates keeping the country in strict neutrality, and is also against anti-Russian sanctions and arms supplies to Ukraine.

It goes without saying that the aforementioned summit will only serve as Zelensky's propaganda platform, in which he will seek to legitimize him internationally, because his period as president of Ukraine ended on May 20 and, according to the Constitution, he takes office as president of the Verkhovna Rada. (Parliament). Martial Law is not above their Magna Carta and although it is an internal matter for Ukrainians, what validity does Zelensky's signature have in international agreements, and in the eventual case of a peace agreement, with whom will he negotiate or sign Russia a treaty?

And we already know Zelensky's spiel for his peace plan: return to the 1991 borders, withdrawal of Russian troops, exchange of prisoners "all for all", etc. What he proposes is absurd, because, first of all, Zelensky has approved a law that no one can sign peace with Russia; secondly, the territories that he wants to recover, he has already lost, in practice due to the ethnic cleansing that the Ukrainian governments began since 2014 against the regions of Crimea and Donbas, achieving the animosity of their inhabitants; and, likewise, legally, because through a referendum the regions became independent and joined Russia.

In short, the government officials who are going to the Swiss summit will enjoy traditional hospitality, the Swiss landscapes, the cervelat, apple juice, wines and exquisite Swiss chocolates, they will enjoy the social gathering, on a well-deserved vacation in the that they will forget about the internal problems of their countries, but unfortunately and effectively they will not achieve peace, or anything. Health!

*World journalism award “Honest Vision 2023”