US and Russian flags outside a Swiss government villa outside Geneva where a summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin took place on 16 June 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/PETER KLAUNZER
Switzerland is prepared to host talks between incoming US President Donald Trump and de facto Russian leader Vladimir Putin on ending the war in Ukraine should it be requested to do so, Swiss daily Le Temps reported on Saturday.
Nicolas Bideau, the head of communications at the country’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, told Le Temps that since hosting the first Summit on Peace in Ukraine in June, Switzerland had kept Ukraine, Russia and the US “regularly informed” of its readiness to support “any diplomatic efforts to establish peace”.
Though Switzerland is not expected to “take the initiative” brokering the peace negotiations themselves, Le Temps reported that Bern would be willing to host them should the political will be there from all parties. However, no mention was made of whether representatives from Ukraine would be invited to any potential Trump-Putin talks.
Trump, who while campaigning for re-election last year repeatedly boasted that he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, has already alluded to meeting with Putin face-to-face after he takes office on 20 January.
On Thursday, Trump told journalists that Putin “wants to meet” with him and that his team was working to make that happen, having previously said that he hoped to hold talks with Putin within six months of taking office and claimed to “understand” Russia’s objection to Ukraine’s prospective NATO membership.
Responding to the US president-elect’s comments on Friday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin was “open” to meeting Trump without preconditions, though added that no specific arrangements had yet been made, predicting that there would be “some movement” on that front after Trump’s inauguration.
In June, Switzerland hosted a two-day summit intended to “stimulate a future peace process” in Ukraine, which, though attended by delegations from 92 countries, was widely seen as a missed opportunity amid the absence of delegations from both Russia and China.
