Selensky travels to Saudi Arabia ahead of peace summit
Published: Thursday, May 30th 2024, 14:50
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi is traveling to Saudi Arabia on Saturday to drum up support for a planned peace summit in Switzerland.
This was reported to Deutsche Presse-Agentur by diplomatic sources in Riyadh on Thursday. Selenskyj will meet with the Crown Prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, among others, in the port city of Jeddah.
At Ukraine's request, Switzerland is organizing the meeting on 15 and 16 June on the Bürgenstock near Lucerne. The summit aims to mobilize more international support for the country attacked by Russia.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz intends to travel to the meeting on behalf of Germany. Ukraine is hoping to convince neutral countries or even countries that are friends with Russia of its position, as well as countries that support it. China in particular is being courted.
Saudi Arabia has also tried to adopt as neutral a stance as possible in the Ukraine war and has described its own position as "active neutrality". The kingdom counts the USA among its most important allies, but also maintains good relations with Russia.
Saudi Arabia has also offered to act as a mediator on several occasions. Last summer, Riyadh hosted a summit with participants from more than 40 countries. Selensky also took part in the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia a year ago.
©Keystone/SDA
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