Swiss Conference on Ukraine: Should India Participate?
By IAR Desk
Switzerland will be hosting a peace conference on Ukraine at its resort town of at Bürgenstock during June 15-16.
Around 190 countries have been invited to the summit. A notable exclusion is the Russian Federation, with whom any peace on Ukraine has to be concluded.
Russia has called on countries to not participate in the summit, calling it to be a non-starter and “futile” as one of the main patties to the conflict will be absent. It has also said that the summit only seeks to legitimise the regime of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
A number of countries have indicated their non- participation in the summit, like Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia.
India will participate in the Ukraine peace summit “at an appropriate level” according to Foreign Secretary Vijay Kwatra. However, he said New Delhi is yet to take a call on who will represent the country.
Mr. Kwatra also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who embarked on his first foreign visit in his third term of governance, to Apulia, Italy, to attend the G7 summit as an attachment invitee, will also discuss the Ukraine conflict with his counterparts from the G7.
IAR spoke to some experts on what they think of India’s – a close strategic partner of Russia – participation in the conference.
Krishnan Srinivasan is India’s former Foreign Secretary and Deputy Secretary -General of the Commonwealth. He told IAR that “India has stated that it is ready to work for and contribute to peace in Ukraine. However, there are some reservations about the proposed Swiss conference…. Switzerland has not proved to be neutral but has followed the West’s sanctions on Russia.
“It would be desirable for India to attend despite the above negative factors, to show that it is willing to help towards a settlement and to represent the Global South, BRICS, and G-20. As matters now stand, a junior foreign minister will be appropriate and there is no need for the prime minister to attend.”
Former Ambassador Ashok Sajjanhar thinks India should attend the Swiss Conference on Ukraine, but “not at a senior official level but at a mid political level.” He explained this by pointing out that “India has participated in earlier similar meetings to discuss Ukraine. This is a little different because much greater preparations have been made for this Summit and many important world leaders have spoken about the importance and relevance of these discussions. I feel that we are coming closer to discussing the end game in Ukraine because the capacity of USA and Europe and Japan to support the Ukraine war effort has diminished and will continue to do so even more in the coming months.
“Ukraine also needs to start thinking actively about the contours of any final deal it would have to conclude with Russia.
PM Modi will be meeting with the G7 leaders and other invitees in Italy next month. He could inform them about India’s intent to participate. India in Modi 3.0 needs to be even more pro-active than it was over the last ten years to find acceptable solutions to major international problems.”
Dr. Swaran Singh, Professor of International Relations with New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University feels that India should participate in the conference “Given ‘multi-alignment’ now being the defining feature of India’s foreign policy.” However, he cautions that this participation “should remain restricted to lower level officials or even non-official level as this summit does not meet the basic criterion of ensuring all stakeholders being present at these deliberations.” Pointing out that Russia has not been invited to the conference, he reasons that “. the most optimal outcome of this will be nothing but one more ultimatum to Moscow to comply with their fancies. China, Brazil,Pakistan have announced their non-participation. Indeed, as a major player with stakes in an early end of Ukraine crisis,”
“India should clarify its response regarding its participation at the earliest ….as many more nations would be awaiting to see how New Delhi responds to this initiative”
With Prime Minister Modi travelling to Italy for the G7 summit Dr. Singh feels that this “can be his opportunity to indirectly both gauge as also influence G7 leaders perspectives on Ukraine crisis as many of them may be travelling from Italy to the Bürgenstock Resort for the Swiss peace summit.
“Also, given their increasing realisation of global response the hosts Swiss are already beginning to explore an escape in saying that this summit would open possibilities of similar future follow up summits and other initiatives,” he concluded.
