Biden to attend Ukraine peace talks in June: Swiss media

GENEVA (AFP) : US President Joe Biden is expected to attend a high-level Ukraine war peace conference which is expected to be held in Switzerland in mid-June, Swiss media reports said.

The conference date has not yet been set but several media outlets this week suggested June 16-17.

Invitations have not been sent but the NZZ daily newspaper quoted “reliable sources” as saying the US president would attend along with top representatives from dozens of countries.

Swiss authorities have not given any details about the conference.

In January, Switzerland announced that it had agreed to organize talks after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the country when he met with his Swiss counterpart Viola Amherd.

At the time, Zelensky spoke of a “summit” without any Russian participation.

But traditionally neutral Switzerland called it a “high-level conference on peace in Ukraine” and is battling to attract China and other emerging powers.

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis also tried to woo Moscow, meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York in January.

The Kremlin believes, however, that Switzerland is no longer impartial as it has endorsed European Union sanctions against Russia.

According to Bloomberg, the conference will not take place in Geneva, as some media reports suggested, but in Lucerne in the Swiss Alps at the luxurious Burgenstock Hotel.

In January, Switzerland hosted more than 80 national security advisers for talks seeking common ground on Ukraine’s peace formula.

The meeting was based on Zelensky’s 10-point proposals to halt the war since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. “The purpose is to prepare so that we are ready and ripe to launch a process with Russia — when the time comes,” Cassis told a press conference at the time.