Riyadh - Saudi Arabia was set to host talks on the Ukraine war on Saturday in the latest flexing of its diplomatic muscle, though expectations are mild for what the gathering might achieve. The meeting of national security advisers and other officials in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah underscores Riyadh's "readiness to exert its good offices to contribute to reaching a solution that will result in permanent peace," the official Saudi Press Agency said Friday.
Invitations were sent to around 30 countries, Russia not among them, according to diplomats familiar with the preparations. The SPA report said only that "a number of countries" would attend.
It follows Ukraine-organised talks in Copenhagen in June that were designed to be informal and did not yield an official statement. Instead, diplomats said the sessions were intended to engage a range of countries in debates about a path towards peace, notably members of the BRICS bloc with Russia that have adopted a more neutral stance on the war in contrast to Western powers.
Speaking on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the wide range of countries represented in the Jeddah talks, including developing countries that have been hit hard by the surge in food prices triggered by the war.
"This is very important because, on issues such as food security, the fate of millions of people in Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world directly depends on how fast the world moves to implement the peace formula," he said. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude exporter which works closely with Russia on oil policy, has touted its ties to both sides and positioned itself as a possible mediator in the war, now nearly a year and a half old.
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