Final Declaration Of Ukraine Peace Summit Appears Ripped Off From China’s Peace Plan

This past weekend’s international peace summit in Switzerland, which included the presence of Ukraine’s Zelensky along with nearly 100 countries – but which had no Russia or China representation – produced “zero” results according to a Kremlin statement lambasting the gathering.

“If we talk about the results of this meeting, then they come down to zero,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a press briefing.

“Many countries understood the lack of perspective of any serious discussion without the presence of our country,” Peskov added, saying also that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “still open to dialogue and serious discussion.”

A final document produced by the summit, which 78 of the countries agreed to and formally signed, asserted that the basis of any future Ukraine-Russia peace deal to end the war must preserve the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine.

Ukraine and its Western backers dismissed last Friday’s offer by Putin to accept Russia’s conditions for ceasefire, which included the demand that Kiev give up the four annexed eastern territories and to finally quit its aspirations to join NATO.

Meanwhile, some astute observers, including geopolitical analyst Arnaud Bertrand, have pointed out that the final communiqué from the Swiss summit was effectively ripped off from China’s own version of a peace plan that it has pushed internationally since last year.

“Genuinely astonishing how the final communiqué of Swiss ‘Summit on Peace in Ukraine’ is basically 6 out of the 12 points of China’s February 2023 Peace plan,” he wrote on X. Beijing first proposed its version a year-and-a-half ago.

Genuinely astonishing how the final communiqué of Swiss “Summit on Peace in Ukraine” (https://t.co/gqwxt2v9dY) is basically 6 out of the 12 points of China’s February 2023 “Peace plan” (https://t.co/bEXJyDpPi8), and only that.

In short it’s the Chinese peace plan, without:
– A… pic.twitter.com/ma82q7HPO4

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) June 17, 2024

Ironically enough, just days ago Reuters described that China had been pushing a “rival” peace plan prior to the Swiss summit:

China, skipping a weekend summit on a peace plan for Ukraine, has been lobbying governments for its alternative plan, 10 diplomats said, with one calling Beijing’s campaign a “subtle boycott” of the global meeting in Switzerland.

Given obvious parallels and similarities between the two peace plans, another geopolitical commentator, Cyrus Janssen, quipped, “If you are going to copy someone’s homework at least go the full effort and copy the whole thing.”

Meanwhile, China has continued to face accusations that it is sabotaging the prospect for peace in Ukraine while doing Russia’s bidding…

Read @AlexGabuev on how China and Russia have deepened their relations since the start of the war in Ukraine—and how Beijing plans to make itself a central player in diplomatic efforts regarding the conflict moving forward. https://t.co/323Er1kBLl

— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) June 15, 2024