Hungary unlikely to participate in Ukraine's Peace Summit due to Russia's absence

Iryna Kutielieva, Anastasia Protz — Monday, 3 June 2024, 17:43

In an interview with pro-government Belarusian television channel ONT, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó expressed doubts about his country's participation in the Peace Summit in Switzerland, citing Russia's absence as the reason.

Source: Belarusian state-owned news agency BelTA, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The Hungarian minister explained that Budapest is hesitant, because Russia will not be represented at the summit.

Quote: "We respect Switzerland's efforts to promote peace. We deeply respect their position. However, the question remains: does a peace conference make sense if warring parties are not present? So if not all parties are represented, I believe it's a reasonable question whether the entire conference makes sense in terms of the ultimate purpose, which is the promotion of peace," Szijjártó said.

He believes that a peace conference only makes sense "if both sides are present at the negotiating table".

Background:

On Friday 31 May, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland did not match all of Beijing's standards for such an event, making it unlikely to be presented there.
On Sunday 2 June, Zelenskyy accused China of supporting efforts to deter the leaders from attending the summit in Switzerland.
In response, Beijing asserted they have never "fanned fire or fuelled the flames" of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

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