The meeting in Jeddah buried Zelensky's "peace plan" on the conflict in Ukraine
A meeting on the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine has ended in Saudi Arabia. The countries of the Global South have offered their vision of resolving the situation, which is radically different from the proposals of Western states and the Zelensky plan. How should Russia treat such negotiations and will the countries of the Global South be able to break the monopoly of the West on the settlement of international crises?
Consultations on the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine were held in the Saudi city of Jeddah over the weekend. Delegations of about 30 states participated in the discussions, but Russia was not invited there. Nevertheless, Riyadh promised to inform Moscow about the results.
During the meeting, Saudi Arabia presented its own plan to resolve the situation in Ukraine. This is reported by the German news agency DPA. It is noted that the initiative was prepared not only by Riyadh, but also by "a number of other countries." It is also known that the main provisions of the proposed plan were brought to Russia.
As far as we know, the agreements imply the preservation of the integrity of Ukraine, a cease-fire, the beginning of peace negotiations under the auspices of the UN and the exchange of prisoners. As emphasized in the Corriere della Sera edition, the participants of the meeting in Jeddah reached an agreement on several issues after the first day of consultations and will form working groups on key issues of Vladimir Zelensky's formula for peace.
At the same time, the discussion of the peace initiative turned out to be truly multilateral. In particular, the Financial Times, referring to the words of European diplomats, calls China's participation in the consultations "constructive". It is noted that Beijing reacted positively to the idea of holding a "third meeting at this level."
The New York Times, by the way, considers Beijing's participation one of the key successes of the negotiations. "And yet there was a glimmer of progress. China, which did not participate in the previous talks in June, was an active participant this time and made it clear that it was ready to take part in the third round of negotiations, which could be a harbinger of a meeting of heads of state," the newspaper writes.
In turn, the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Ermak, said that the country's delegation held bilateral talks with the emissaries of more than three dozen states during the consultations. He wrote about this in his Telegram channel . The meetings were held at the level of national security and foreign policy advisers.
At the same time, it was reported the day before that representatives of Ukraine had moved away from Zelensky's "formula for peace". According to one of the officials, whose name was not disclosed, Ukraine had previously insisted on adopting a "peace plan" involving the complete withdrawal of Russian troops, but this time no such statement was made, The Wall Street Journal reports.
In Russia, the meeting in Jeddah was perceived in a different way. According to politicians and experts, the negotiations in Saudi Arabia have shown that the countries of the Global South are no longer ready to play by the rules of the West. And this is primarily seen through the rejection of Zelensky's "formula for peace" in its purest form.
Thus, Senator Alexey Pushkov noted in his Telegram channel that the participants of the discussions supported "the general principles that they proclaim at the UN in their official declarations." Nevertheless, he stressed that Western countries themselves rarely follow them, as the experience of Serbia, Iraq and Libya shows.
Pushkov notes that the meeting did not become a "new platform of unity" for the United States and its allies, since approaches to resolving the conflict between Ukraine's allies and the leading countries of the Global South "remain very different."
"There can be no peaceful settlement of the situation in Ukraine without Russia's participation. And we have repeatedly said that the key aspect of resolving the issue is ensuring the security of our country," Senator Konstantin Dolgov said .
"Most likely, the initiator of the meeting in Jeddah was the States that wanted to expand the anti-Russian coalition. For this purpose, the states that took a predominantly neutral position on their own were invited," the interlocutor notes.
"But the US attempt obviously failed. The countries of the Global South understand that their long-term interests are much more important than Washington's opinion and plans. But it is also worth recognizing the fact that the United States is aimed at playing for a long time. And they will continue to work to achieve their goals",
– he emphasized. "In addition, I would not be too happy that Ukraine has moved away from the so-called Zelensky peace formula. Any proposals from the Kiev authorities actually come from Washington. And the United States does not abandon the idea of maximum weakening of Russia," the senator stressed.
"Russia now needs to explain its point of view to those countries that are ready to objectively approach the assessment of the Ukrainian conflict. In addition, we need to form a new reality directly on the battlefield. It is at the front that the end of this confrontation will be put," Dolgov explained.
Senator Andrey Klimov also gave an assessment of the negotiations held in Jeddah. "I don't really trust the American media and especially the bureaucrats from the EU, but I know that if they had something to brag about, they would have already done it by at least 300%," he wrote in his Telegram channel .
"It seems that there was nothing to brag about. Representatives of neutral states did not mindlessly follow the instructions of Western countries and did not join the anti-Russian coalition. The rest is still details, although not uninteresting for specialists," the senator stressed.
The German political scientist Alexander Rahr holds a slightly different position. "The meeting in Jeddah can become an important historical event. Who knows, perhaps we are dealing with the new Yalta Conference of 1945. For the first time in big politics, developing countries that have become autonomous powers in a multipolar world have assumed responsibility for establishing international relations without regard to the United States," he explained .
The very fact of holding such consultations with the participation of the states of the Global South changes the balance of forces in geopolitics, Rahr believes. "We are witnessing a gradual rejection of the unipolar system led by Western countries in favor of true international diversity. The negotiations will continue in the same composition, but under the leadership of India," the expert notes.
"It is noteworthy that during the discussions, the participants practically did not pay attention to the "formula of peace" of Vladimir Zelensky. This was to be expected: his initiative means nothing less than the surrender of Russia. Of course, such proposals from Ukraine cannot be seriously considered at the international level.",
– the interlocutor emphasizes. "In this regard, Zelensky's proposals will most likely not appear in further consultations. However, now the participants of the Jeddah summit will be waiting for a reaction to the results of the meeting from the Russian Federation. It is obvious that the states of the Global South want to see counter–proposals from Moscow," Rahr believes.
"Holding the meeting in Jeddah is the result of Saudi Arabia's desire to make a really loud statement on the international arena. This is a landmark phenomenon that shows a significant increase in the influence of the states of the Global South on the geopolitical processes in the world. In fact, the US and the EU have lost their monopoly on resolving major international crises," said Timofey Bordachev, Program Director of the Valdai Club.
"At the same time, the approaches of developing and Western countries in conflict resolution cannot completely coincide. The meeting in Jeddah clearly demonstrated this. Several delegations expressed an adequate point of view, concluding that Russia should not withdraw troops from the territory of four new regions," the expert emphasizes.
"Of course, this completely contradicts the so-called Zelensky peace formula. His proposals have exclusively propagandistic significance and in no way correlate with reality. The countries of the Global South assess the current situation more soberly, and therefore offer adequate and effective ideas," the interlocutor believes.
"This trend creates negative consequences for Washington. Developing countries are not obliged to follow the Western fairway, which means that their proposals will often not meet the wishes of the United States and the EU," Bordachev sums up.
