it is not necessary to completely reject the participation of US President Joe Biden in the global peace summit, which will be held in Switzerland, because it is possible that Americans do not want to disclose their plans until the very final moment. This opinion was expressed to the journalist UNN expert of the Foreign Policy Council "Ukrainian prism" Alexander Kraev.
I would not completely reject Biden's participation, because let's recall all Biden's visits to Ukraine and even Poland during the full-scale invasion, they were never announced very early. They were announced a maximum of a week, most often several days in advance. That is, it is possible that in this case we are dealing with "information security" that the Americans do not want to disclose their plans until the very final moment and they are not ready to talk about exactly where the president will be, at what point in time. Therefore, it is possible that Biden's presence is still on the table, because the Americans did not finally say "no", although they did not say "yes". Therefore, we also do not discount this option
Kraev noted that for Ukraine, in the absence of Biden, there are only two positive options for his replacement to represent the United States at the summit.
"This is either US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken or US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. In fact, we don't have any other adequate options, except for US Vice President Kamala Harris, but there are certain aspects here," Kraev believes.
Kraev noted that America's participation at the highest level is a guarantee and indicator that the so – called collective West and Western-type liberal democracies in general support the Ukrainian initiative.
"That is, it is very good that there are European partners for the most part, it is very good that there are democratic countries from other parts of the world, but if there is no United States, then conditionally we do not have a key arsenal of democracies, there is no key force of the democratic world, we do not have those who, in principle, ensure the adoption of all decisions," Kraev said.
Відсутності Байдена на Саміті миру путін аплодуватиме стоячи - Зеленський 28.05.24, 13:11
"In this case, when we talk about the possibility of a certain peaceful format, the format of negotiations that the United States has been talking about since 2022, Biden's absence shows that this format of negotiations is not so interesting for Americans. At the moment when we have an alternative from China, alternative formats from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, etc., This is not a very positive signal for us. A signal that the Americans are not ready to fully invest in our format of negotiations and are considering alternatives. Therefore, for our other partners, European and non – European, This is also a signal that, apparently, not everything is so OK in the Ukrainian plan, if the United States is not ready to join it," Kraev said.
When asked if the campaign fundraising event was a good reason for Biden to miss the summit, Kraev said::
"Firstly, not very significant and secondly, given that a significant part of those Hollywood actors and figures who will meet with Biden then in the state of California are members of the platform UNITED24, I have a suspicion that such an event may be postponed as part of the election campaign. Or I don't think it will be a big problem for Hollywood stars to have the same meeting with Biden on the sidelines of the summit in Switzerland."
context
Recently, Zelensky called on Biden and Xi to support the peace summit with their personal participation.
On May 24, it was reported that Bloomberg, citing sources, wrote that US President Joe Biden is likely to miss the Peace Summit, which will be held in Switzerland on June 15-16, as it coincides with the fundraising event for the election campaign in California.
Earlier, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during a briefing on May 22 that Biden's participation in the Peace Summit, which will be held in Switzerland, remains uncertain, as the White House has not yet confirmed whether he will be at the event.
On May 15, United States Secretary of State Anthony Blenken announced that the United States will be represented at the Peace Summit in Switzerland, but cannot yet announce at what level it will be represented.