Behind many international problems there is a sluggish process that the Americans launched last spring. This refers to the so-called “global summit” on Ukraine supposed to bring most world leaders together, primarily the heads of state in the Global South. The United States has been pressing Switzerland into implementing this losing proposition. The Americans’ calculation is clear: Switzerland, famous for its “neutrality” (which is actually a myth), should convene most states of the world under this label in order to make Russia back down.
As envisioned by White House strategists, the Global South should approve the notorious “Zelensky formula” and force Russia to embrace it, too. Simply put, the United States is seeking to knock together a wide international coalition against Russia and establish conditions making it an outcast forced to act in the hegemon’s interests. And this entire thing has to be presented as the standpoint of the entire global community.
Just a reminder: the so-called “Copenhagen format” came into being early last summer at a “secret” international meeting in the capital of Denmark. The US-arranged venue invited high-ranking foreign policy and security experts from the Global South in an attempt to galvanize their support for the “Zelensky formula”. Initiated by US President’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the meeting’s strategic objective was preparations for a “global Ukraine summit”. Meanwhile, the “secret” Copenhagen meeting is said to have featured doubts by a number of delegations, in particular Brazil’s, about success of any peace talks without Russia involved.
The Americans, however, did not stifle their offensive after Copenhagen and announced a “global summit” in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in August last year. And it turned a failure as well. The United States expected the presence of heads of state and government from 40 countries but the concept had changed a couple of days before the “summit,” as the famous joke goes. Leaders in the Global South simply refused to take part when told that Russia, a party in the Ukraine conflict, obtained no invitation to those “peace negotiations.”
Ambitious statements to that effect came, for instance, from Mexican President Lopez Obrador, who called off his visit to Jeddah over Russia’s absence there. He was echoed by Brazilian leader Lula da Silva, who was going to send his international affairs adviser Celso Amorim to the venue instead of himself. But none of them did attend in the end, choosing to address those present via video link. In a word, even prior to the much-hyped “summit” it was already clear that the reckless gamble was smelling of a debacle. And so, the “summit” was hastily renamed a “meeting of national security advisers and senior officials.”
Still, it appeared as not just mere empty shell. The facilitators got an utterly opposite public effect, which explains scarcity of Western press reports about the Jeddah meeting. The West received a painful punch in its face from those it deemed "neutral". But neutrality has exposed undisguised hostility against the United States and the entire collective West on the one hand, and understanding and respect for Moscow’s stance on the other.
The US Jeddah failure proved so unwholesome that the EU made no bones about the absence of a joint statement in the aftermath. To save the face of both American and Ukrainian diplomacy, The New York Times wrote back then that the meeting in Jeddah was a “starting point of what is expected to be a major Ukrainian diplomatic push in the coming months to try to undercut Russia."
And this “major Ukrainian diplomatic push” occurred during this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos. This time, the creative American strategists sought to use the WEF sign to have all the heads of state and government together. And yet, embarrassment came into the picture here as well. The main thing is that the venue became a meeting of “experts” again. And again, they failed to find a common US-imposed denominator to unanimously put the screws on Russia. Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, the Davos discussion co-chair, said the meeting would probably be the last in the current format, with further steps remaining unclear. And representatives of the Global South reiterated that without Russia and due regard to its stance, any meetings of the kind are fruitless.
Pushed forward by Jake Sullivan, Zelensky meanwhile defied all the hints and proceeded with the onslaught on Switzerland. Despite its chief diplomat’s abovementioned statement, Zelensky headed for Bern to persuade President of the Swiss Confederation Viola Amherd to still arrange a high-level conference on the Kiev-promoted “peace formula”. And Switzerland let itself be tempted. At a joint press conference with Zelensky, Ms Amherd declared Bern’s readiness to do so, adding that the parties would be working on further steps. How could she not give in if the location for the mythical “global Ukraine summit” was surely chosen by Washington, whose requests Bern can hardly deny. And now it has become the stone around Switzerland’s neck, because the task set by Washington is all but unfeasible.
The US and Zelensky keep portraying their "peace formula", first outlined in late 2022, as the groundwork for any negotiations with Russia, yet everyone apprehends it will never work. This is what Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov emphasized in his recent interview to the Izvestiya newspaper.
“How can serious politicians in Washington, Brussels, London, Paris or Berlin claim that there is no alternative?” the head of our Foreign Ministry wondered. “This formula essentially says that Russia must capitulate, and pull out from Crimea, Donbass, and Novorossiya. Russia must pay indemnities. Russia’s top officials must come to The Hague and “turn themselves in” to the tribunal,” Lavrov noted. " Russia must voluntarily agree to limit its armaments, at least in areas bordering Europe. Are they seriously suggesting this?"
Speaking about the insoluble problem facing Switzerland, the Russian Minister noted that “now the Swiss are initiating another get-together as part of the Copenhagen format, where everyone is invited and forced to agree with Vladimir Zelensky’s formula, to support it or at least declare their readiness to discuss parts of it." Switzerland, for which read the United States, is offered to discuss food security, energy security, and nuclear security. “This is all just for appearances’ sake, precisely to lure people by this seemingly innocent agenda,” Lavrov pointed out.
The Russian Foreign Minister also mentioned the January meeting with his Swiss counterpart Cassis in New York, as the latter spoke about plans to convene “another meeting in Switzerland and invite Ukraine, the West and as many countries of the South as possible,” which Russia would not be invited to attend, but where “they would fine-tune and finalize the Zelensky formula and try to make it more acceptable. More acceptable – how? Does this mean that Russia would be told to leave not tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow?”
“When they finally agree on it, when it evolves into something they all share, they say they will be happy to invite us and present it at the next meeting. This is a serious and mature person talking. A minister, and former President of Switzerland. You would expect someone with this kind of experience to be more aware of what they are saying and doing,” Lavrov went on to say, unequivocally diagnosing the Swiss Confederation’s chief diplomat.
To sum up, let us note that Jake Sullivan’s personal reputation is at stake because he is the one who came up with the idea of holding a “global summit” on Ukraine. Hence his big fuss over it since last spring. Sullivan is willing to provide President Biden with a political bonus ahead of the November US presidential election in form of a successful “global summit”, which, according to his plan, will bring together the entire Global South and make Russia surrender. Sullivan’s idea has been a headache to the Swiss as they are struggling to cope with this “homework assignment.”
