US President may miss Ukrainian Peace Summit to focus on election fundraising – Bloomberg
The head of the United States, Joe Biden, will most likely miss the Ukrainian Peace Summit, which will be held in Switzerland next month. Instead, he will attend a fundraiser for his campaign in California.
Bloomberg reports this.
Switzerland has scheduled the summit for June 15–16, following the G7 meeting in Italy. According to sources familiar with the topic, several G7 leaders intend to participate in the peace summit. However, neither Biden nor U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will be in attendance. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin was not invited to the summit, and leaders of some other countries also will not attend.
Biden is scheduled to fly from the G7 meeting in southern Italy to Los Angeles for a June 15 fundraiser. He will be joined by:
- George Clooney,
- Julia Roberts and other stars,
- also ex-president Barack Obama,
- TV host Jimmy Kimmel.
According to Bloomberg, the decision underscores that Biden continues to "shift into campaign mode" as he tries to overcome Donald Trump's lead in key states ahead of the November election.
Last month, Trump eclipsed Biden's fundraising efforts for the first time this election cycle, raising another $76 million to his $51 million.
Still, other 70 countries will attend the Peace Summit in Switzerland, including leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is likely to be there as well.
According to Bloomberg, China's absence is likely to disappoint Zelensky. Beijing has long been seen as crucial to the peace process, given its close ties with Russia, but so far, it has skipped most meetings ahead of the summit.
China and several other countries of the so-called Global South insisted that Russia be involved in the process. Ukraine and its allies do not want to engage with Russia until a set of principles is agreed upon to define a possible future peace settlement. The Swiss summit was conceived as a first step towards this goal.
The paper said that diplomats organizing the conference "smothered its ambitions" to focus on a narrow set of goals — such as nuclear security and prisoner exchanges. These points do not correspond to the Ukrainian peace plan, which provides for the withdrawal of Russian troops and future security guarantees.
Russia is also forcing countries in Asia, Africa, and South America to avoid the Peace Summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Russian officials met and called their counterparts from dozens of countries, from India to the tiny Comoros Islands, to dissuade them from attending the Swiss conference.
As reported, China and Brazil support the conference on peace in Ukraine only with the participation of Russia.
For reference:
As reported by Rubryka, in January 2024, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the President of the Swiss Confederation, Viola Amherd, agreed to start preparations for holding the Global Peace Summit at the level of state leaders in Switzerland.
It should be noted that back in November 2022, Zelensky announced the "peace formula" for the first time, which should contribute to ending a full-scale war on fair terms.
The aforementioned "formula" will be discussed during the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland. The Russian Federation is not among the invited participants.
Earlier, the head of the President's Office, Andriy Yermak, assumed that Russia might participate in the global peace summit, but not at the first meeting.
The Swiss government has decided to hold a two-day high-level conference on June 15-16 to achieve peace in Ukraine. Russia will not participate in the event.
