DAVOS: More than 80 countries held talks on Sunday seeking common ground on Ukraine’s peace formula, as the Swiss co-hosts admitted that including Russia in negotiations remains some way off.

National security advisers from 83 countries held a fourth round of discussions based on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s 10-point proposals for a lasting and just peace in Ukraine.

The talks were co-chaired by Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak, who heads Zelensky’s office, and Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis.

“The purpose is to prepare so that we are ready and ripe to launch a process with Russia — when the time comes,” Cassis told a press conference.

He said the talks had to find a way to include Russia at some point, but thus far, neither Kyiv nor Moscow was ready to take such a step.

The meeting was being held in the luxury ski resort of Davos in eastern Switzerland, on the eve of the five-day World Economic Forum. Zelensky is due to travel to Switzerland on Monday and will visit the annual summit of the globe’s business and political elite.

Yermak said the talks were open, constructive and detailed on the key principles in reaching a “comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine”.

While there were differences on how to achieve peace, “we are very joined in the main principles if independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty and the norm of international law and the statutes of United Nations”, he told a press conference.

Cassis said the involvement of Brazil, India and South Africa in the talks — countries that sit alongside Russia in the BRICS group — was highly important as they were still in dialogue with Moscow.

Yermak said Ukraine was looking at hosting summits with African countries and with South American nations to explain its position more broadly.

He added that he had not been pressed to offer Ukrainian territorial concessions, saying Ukraine was still fighting and will “obviously win this war”.

In an earlier press conference, Cassis noted: “We will need to find a path to include Russia in the process. There will be no peace without Russia having its word to say.” However, he added that “every minute that we wait, dozens of civilians in Ukraine are killed or wounded. We have no right to wait forever”.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2024