Politico revealed that the White House is seriously considering the possibility of hosting peace talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital Budapest, in an attempt to open a window to end the ongoing war between Moscow and Kyiv.
According to American officials, Washington is seeking to arrange a trilateral meeting in Budapest, seen as a pivotal stop on the road to negotiations. Although security options are still under review, the Hungarian capital currently appears to be the leading candidate for hosting the meeting.
However, Moscow leans towards hosting the summit on its territory, while French President Emmanuel Macron proposed Geneva as an alternative option. In the same context, the Swiss Foreign Minister hinted that hosting the negotiations in Switzerland could provide Putin with 'temporary immunity' from pending international arrest warrants related to war crimes.
However, the choice of Budapest carries sensitive implications, as its name is associated with the 1994 memorandum signed by the United States, Britain, and Russia, in which those countries pledged to guarantee Ukraine's sovereignty in exchange for its relinquishment of nuclear arsenals. With the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014 and the failure of the guaranteeing countries to act militarily, the memorandum has lost much of its weight, making a return to it today a test of the credibility of international commitments and the collective security system.
Despite the momentum surrounding the idea, the fate of the summit remains uncertain. The Russian foreign minister prefers a gradual approach and expresses reservations about holding a direct meeting, while the White House spokesperson confirms that Putin has initially agreed to the meeting and that Washington is intensifying efforts to expedite preparations.
Observers believe that the preparation for the summit reflects a transition of the crisis into a new diplomatic phase, but many obstacles remain: from drawing the boundaries of the ceasefire, to mechanisms for easing or lifting sanctions, culminating in the formulation of security guarantees that satisfy the conflicting parties.
A European diplomat described the challenge by saying: “The location is just a preliminary detail; the real test lies in bringing the parties to the same table to discuss the essence of the disagreement, away from merely having a ceremonial scene in front of the media lenses.”
Tags: #Russian_Ukrainian_Talks #Budapest_Summit #International_Diplomacy
