More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, took part in two days of talks in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah aimed at contributing to a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine. The meeting ended on Sunday, August 6, and Russia was not invited to it. The result of the meeting at the level of advisers and senior officials was not the adoption of a written final statement.
According to Ukrainian sources, Ukraine and its allies said the talks were an attempt to secure broad international support for principles that would form the basis for peace, including the withdrawal of all Russian troops and the return of all Ukrainian territory to its control. In a video presentation, President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a global summit based on these principles to be held at the end of this year.
Russian state media on Sunday quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that the meeting was “a reflection of the West’s attempt to continue a futile, doomed attempt” to mobilize the global South in support of Zelensky’s positions. According to the Russian news agency TASS, Russia wants to discuss the results from Jeddah with its BRICS partners.
While Western countries are largely supportive of Ukraine, many other states are reluctant to take sides, even though they are motivated to end the conflict, which has hit the global economy. Important was the participation of China, which abstained from the previous round of talks in Copenhagen and avoided Western calls to condemn the Russian invasion. According to political observers, China’s presence could mean some change in its attitude, although not a fundamental one.
Ukrainian representative Andriy Yermak said that during the talks there were different opinions, but he described the talks as extremely honest and open. According to him, however, it was important that all the countries present demonstrate their commitment to the principles of international law and respect for the sovereignty and inviolability of states’ territorial integrity.
The effort by Saudi Arabia, which used its growing relations with China and ties with Moscow and Kiev, to convene a wider group of states, as well as the broad participation of the international community, is undoubtedly significant. However, future progress on the issue will not be helped if Russia downplays such meetings, like it did by the statement by the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitriy Medvedev, shortly after the meeting in Jeddah, stating that Ukraine never existed before 1991, and that Russia considers this historical context and the current situation as conditions for peace negotiations.
