Jeddah meet on Ukraine a positive move

The two-day peace initiative on the war in Ukraine at Jeddah on August 5 and 6 has evoked a large response with security officials from 42 countries attending the conference. Ukraine was present at the Saudi Arabia-hosted meeting. Russia has reacted with predictable ambivalence.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that without inviting Russia and “taking interests into account, no meeting on Ukraine will have any added value at all,” Russian news agency Tass reported. On the other hand, Ukraine and the US appreciated Saudi Arabia’s efforts for convening the meeting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants the Jeddah meeting to be a curtain-raiser for a global summit on Ukrainian peace proposals. The Ukrainian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia said, “First of all, I’d like to thank Saudi Arabia for being so committed and hospitable to Ukraine in moving forward our peace formula plan.”

It would seem that Ukraine believes that the Jeddah conference is an expression of support for Zelensky’s 10-point peace proposal, which Russia had rejected outright. Russia had also rejected the peace plan proposed by China in February and by the African countries in April this year.

Perhaps the reason that Saudi Arabia did not invite Russia for these talks is to examine the Ukrainian peace proposals and try to convince Ukraine that its plan would not work unless it takes on board some of the Russian points. Possibly, G7 and the European Union (EU) countries are fully in favour of the Ukrainian stance, but countries from Global South like host Saudi Arabia and Russia’s friend and ally China would suggest modifications to the Ukrainian proposals. It is to facilitate a free exchange of ideas with Ukraine that Russia was kept out of the peace meet at this stage.

Zakharova was of the view that this meeting was used by G7 and Ukraine to legitimise the Ukrainian peace plan, but it is clearly the case that most Global South countries have taken a neutral position and that is why they want to play the mediating role between the two warring parties. Zakharova has kept this aspect of the conference in mind, and therefore did not dismiss altogether the usefulness of the Jeddah initiative. She said that Russia was receptive to peace initiatives from the conference. The aim of the Jeddah conference is then to convince Ukraine to modify its peace plan and then turn to Russia to persuade Moscow to change its stance as well. At the moment, both Kyiv and Moscow have adopted a rigid stance which reflect their respective national positions. But to work out peace between the two, the mediators will have to persuade both the sides to step back from their stated positions.

Ukraine and the US have recognised the nature of the Jeddah meeting: exchange of a wide range of views, which could lead to a firmer position on the final peace plan. Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said that different viewpoints emerged during the conference, and confirmed, “We had very productive consultations on the key principles on which a just and lasting peace should be built.” A US official said, “It was a good and constructive set of conversations with a range of countries who came together to exchange views and build a common ground in support of a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”

It is clear then that both Ukraine and the US have taken the Jeddah meeting as a place to build a consensus from a range of views. So, the peace plan cannot be based on the Ukrainian perspective alone. The Jeddah conference is then an exploratory one, and a very tentative first step in resolving what is turning out to be a difficult problem.