US President Joe Biden is likely to miss the peace summit on Ukraine, which will be held in Switzerland on June 15-16. Also, US Vice President Kamala Harris will not attend the summit.
This was reported by Bloomberg with reference to informed sources.
According to their information, Biden will fly to Italy to participate in the meeting of leaders of the G7 countries, but on June 15 will go to Los Angeles, to a fundraising event for his election campaign.
The summit is to be held in Bürgenstock, Switzerland. The Swiss authorities agreed to organize it at Kiev's request and invited about 160 countries. Many heads of state are taking part in the gathering of leaders. So, the President of Finland said that at the request of the Ukrainian President invites countries to the conference.
“Now I am making many calls, especially to the countries of the global South, and I hope that they will come to this meeting after mid-June”, - quoted President Stubb Finnish media.
However, not all heads of state are accepting the invitation. The leaders of Brazil and South Africa said they would not participate in the summit because there would be no representatives from Russia, who were not even invited to the summit in the first place.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry explained the absence of an invitation for Russia “at this stage” by the fact that the latter has repeatedly publicly stated its disinterest in participation.
While Switzerland is preparing for the peace conference, two of Russia's BRICS neighbors have proposed holding their own alternative summit.
This was announced on Thursday by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the head of Brazil's presidential adviser Celso Amorima, following their meeting in Beijing.
At the meeting, they signed a memorandum outlining a “common understanding” toward resolving the war. It is noted that this is the first time China signs a joint declaration with another country on the war.
The declaration says that the summit should be an alternative to the summit in Switzerland, to which Russia was not invited.
“China and Brazil support the holding of an international peace conference at an appropriate time that will be recognized by both Russia and Ukraine, with equal participation of all sides, and honest discussion of all peace plans,” the statement said.
