Italy and Switzerland mean to work on setting up a peace conference on Ukraine with a Russian presence, their two foreign ministers said after bilateral talks Monday.
"The two ministers agreed to remain in contact in order to cooperate in creating the best conditions for a second peace summit with the participation of the parties including Russia and all relevant global actors", said a joint statement on Ukraine signed by the foreign ministers of Italy and Switzerland, Antonio Tajani and Ignazio Cassis, amid a visit by the Italian FM.
They "call on all actors to spare no effort to reach a shared negotiating platform based on respect for international law and the principles of territorial integrity and independence of states enshrined in the UN Charter".
The joint initiative follows a mid-June Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland that urged concrete steps on three themes: nuclear power and weapons, food security, and prisoners and deportees.
Tajani and Cassis signed a joint statement at the Locarno Film Festival where they arrived to attend Diplomacy Day, expressing "profound concern for the continuation of the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine, which keeps creating significant destruction and enormous suffering"- The conflict "has already caused very serious social and humanitarian consequences, as well as permanent damages to civilian infrastructure.
"Since the international conference on peace in Ukraine organized in Bürgenstock on June 16 (2024), a strong appeal has been made by the sides involved for nuclear security to be guaranteed" after it was "placed at strong risk by ongoing military operations, as well as for food security, and to proceed without delay for the release of all prisoners of war, as well as of deported Ukrainian minors and civilians".
Italy, for its part, "is about to host the International Ukraine Recovery Conference in 2025, the fourth of a series started in Ticino - in Lugano - and continued in London and Berlin", the statement went on to say.
"Italy undertakes this essential commitment for the post-war phase and to give the country hope for the future.
Italy and Switzerland, in order to reach a just peace for Ukraine, "call on all interested international actors not to spare efforts to reach a shared negotiating platform, based on respect for international law and on the principles of territorial integrity and independence of states, enshrined in the UN Charter, also considering the proposals advanced so far by many to end the conflict", the statement added.
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