President Joe Biden is likely to miss next month’s Ukraine summit because of a planned campaign fundraiser in California, which he is expected to attend along with George Clooney, Julia Roberts and other stars, reported Bloomberg.
Switzerland has scheduled the conference for June 15-16 after the G-7 meeting in Italy. Several G-7 leaders plan to attend, but neither Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris will be there, according to anonymous sources.
Biden is scheduled to fly from the G-7 meeting in southern Italy to Los Angeles for a June 15 fundraiser. Along with George Clooney and Julia Roberts, he is set to be joined by former President Barack Obama and TV host Jimmy Kimmel.
The decision underscores how Biden has shifted into campaign mode as he tries to overcome former President Donald Trump’s lead in key states ahead of the November election. In addition, last month Trump surpassed Biden in fundraising for the first time in the current election cycle, raising $76 million to an existing $51 million.
It also reflects pessimism about the conference, which Switzerland agreed to host after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the country in January. However, about 70 countries will participate in the summit at some level, including leaders such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is also likely to be there.
However, the absence of China is likely to disappoint Zelenskyy. Beijing has long been seen as crucial to the process, given its close relationship with Moscow.
In addition, China and several other countries of the so-called Global South insisted that Russia be involved in the process. Ukraine and its allies do not want to engage with Moscow until a set of principles is agreed upon that will define any future peace settlement. The Swiss summit was supposed to be the first step towards this goal.
Diplomats organizing the conference have scaled back its ambitions to focus on a narrow set of goals, such as nuclear security and prisoner exchanges, to broaden the range of participants. These points do not correspond to the Ukrainian peace plan, which provides for the withdrawal of Russian troops, as well as future security guarantees.
Russia is also forcing the countries of Asia, Africa, and South America to refrain from participating in the conference. President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other officials have been meeting and calling their counterparts in dozens of countries — from India to the tiny Comoros Islands — with the apparent aim of discouraging participation in the Swiss conference.
With the same goal, Lavrov appealed to the ambassadors in Moscow, and the meeting of foreign ministers of the so-called BRICS countries and their allies on June 10-11 should consolidate these efforts.
On Thursday, May 23, Zelenskyy called Moscow’s attempts to disrupt the summit “the main goal of Russian diplomacy and foreign intelligence for the near future”.
