Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has called for a dedicated international effort to resolve the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Speaking to Corriere della Sera newspaper on Monday, the minister said he hopes “A serious peace conference could be held before the end of the year.”
The latest international meeting devoted to resolving the Ukraine crisis was held this summer in Switzerland. However, Russia was not invited to participate and the highly publicized event failed to yield any concrete results, as many of the participating countries refused to support the summit's joint declaration.
“I think we need to work to find a peace table, a conference like the one held in Switzerland months ago with the participation of Russia and China. Obviously, Russia cannot come with a request for Ukraine's total surrender. Peace is another thing, it must be a fair peace that guarantees Ukraine's independence,” he said. Tajani told reporters in Cagliari on the sidelines of a press conference with his Forza Italia party this weekend.
Moscow criticized the Swiss incident as a “parody of negotiations”, because it was mainly devoted to discussing Vladimir Zelensky's so-called “peace formula”, which Russia has dismissed as unrealistic.
Several other European leaders have also begun calling for a second round of international negotiations on Ukraine, this time with Russia's participation.
Last week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said a new peace conference was needed soon and that “Russia must be at the table.” He insisted that kyiv and its Western allies should… “Explore what options are available” to resolve the conflict.
Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it has never refused to negotiate with Ukraine, but has noted that such talks should not be based on any “ephemeral demands” but in the realities on the ground and in the documents signed at the latest Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Türkiye in 2022.
However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that Moscow does not see the right conditions for starting peace talks to resolve the conflict and that he has not yet heard any statement on the matter from Russia. “the country that is really leading this whole process,” Apparently it refers to the United States.
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