An unnamed Saudi official, so far without official confirmation from the Saudi government, told the Wall Street Journal yesterday that the Saudis will host in August the second summit on the so-called Ukrainian Peace Proposal. Kiev has been trying to deflect various peace initiatives, such as from China, the Vatican, Brazil, India, a group of African nations, and Turkiye, that actually contemplate having Ukraine and Russia negotiate with each other. (Such negotiations had occurred in February and March 2022 in Belarus and Turkiye.) Since no one actually thinks the Ukrainian Peace Proposal’s terms—whereby Russia gives up all the land their forces control and then turns over their elected rulers to an international war crimes tribunal—have anything to do with negotiation, it is unclear whether the countries that attended the first such summit, in June in Copenhagen, are giving up their attempts to have Russia and Ukraine negotiate or whether they think they are simply taking up an opportunity to talk with Kiev about “peace.”
At Copenhagen, pressure was exerted upon Brazil, India, South Africa, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia to sign some statement acknowledging, or giving some currency to the Ukrainian Peace Proposal, but to no avail. Of some note, China, though invited, has chosen not to attend. RT, citing unnamed diplomats, reports that China again will refuse to attend the August 5-6 event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. RT suggested that the choice of Saudi Arabia for another summit had to do with an attempt to get China on board.
