DAVOS: Ukraine and Switzerland will host around 120 national security advisers on Sunday in the Swiss resort town of Davos, Switzerland's foreign affairs department said, the latest in a series of meetings to rally support for Ukraine's peace plan.
The meeting, taking place in the run up to the World Economic Forum which begins the following day, is the fourth of its kind and the biggest yet, following previous gatherings in Copenhagen, Jeddah and most recently in Malta in October. Officials had hoped the meeting in Malta would lead to the setting of a date for a global peace summit to build a coalition of support for Ukraine's 10-point peace plan, drafted by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in December 2022.
However, co-chairs limited themselves at the time to a joint statement referring to the participants' commitment to just and lasting peace. A top Kyiv official told Reuters in November that a summit to begin implementing the plan "might" take place in February 2024, with Ukraine fearing the war in Gaza is making it harder to win over diplomatic support for its blueprint for peace.
Zelenskiy's plan includes calls for the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, protection of food and energy supplies, nuclear safety and the release of all prisoners.
The peace formula talks do not involve Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has occupied nearly a fifth of the country. Russia has rejected the peace "formula", saying it would be impossible to implement.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Middle East leaders will attend the forum next week dominated by the war in Gaza, the WEF said on Tuesday. - Reuters
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