The provisions of the communique signed following the Swiss-hosted summit on Ukraine cannot be implemented without Russia, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said on Sunday.
"The vast majority of decisions we have taken today cannot be implemented without Russian participation," Cassis told a press conference.
The three main topics of the communique were chosen because the summit participants saw opportunities for cooperation with Russia on them and believed that these topics were of interest to Russia, he said.
"We have not touched on other problematic issues, such as territoriality, because we know that we are more or less at a complete impasse here," he added.
Meanwhile, the countries that signed a joint communique following the Swiss-hosted summit on Ukraine have called for control of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant to be returned to Ukraine.
"Ukrainian nuclear power plants and installations, including Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, must operate safely and securely under full sovereign control of Ukraine and in line with IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] principles and under its supervision," the communique read.
The document also called for providing access to sea ports in the Black and Azov seas to ensure global food security.
The signatories also said in the document that "all prisoners of war must be released by complete exchange."
Russia ridiculed the event from afar. A decision by China to stay away all but assured that the summit would fail to achieve Ukraine's goal of persuading major countries from the "global South" to join in isolating Russia.
Brazil attended only as an "observer". And in the end, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and South Africa all withheld their signatures from the summit communique, even though some contentious issues were omitted in the hope of drawing wider support.
Still, the conference provided Kyiv with a chance to showcase the support from Western allies that it says it needs to keep fighting against a far bigger enemy. "We are responding to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine not only with a full-scale defense of human life, but also with full-scale diplomacy," Zelenskiy said.
In her closing remarks, Swiss President Viola Amherd warned that the "road ahead is long and challenging".
"The more allies that can be found to say 'Things can't go on like this', 'This is too much', 'That's overstepping the mark', that also increases the moral pressure on the Russian Federation," said Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer.
As Sunday's talks turned towards issues of food security and nuclear power, some leaders left early.
No country came forward to host another such meeting, with notable silence from Saudi Arabia, mooted as a possible future venue. Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said the kingdom was ready to assist the peace process but a viable settlement would hinge on "difficult compromise."
Since initial peace talks in the first months after the Feb. 2022 invasion, Ukraine has consistently demanded Russia withdraw from all its land, while Moscow has demanded recognition of its rule over territory its forces captured.
Western leaders at the summit endorsed Kyiv's refusal to negotiate under such terms.
"Confusing peace with subjugation would set a dangerous precedent for everyone," said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
BRICS Members Reject Joint Declaration at Swiss Ukraine Conference
The BRICS countries, as well as several other states that attended the Swiss-hosted summit on Ukraine did not sign a joint declaration on the results of the talks on Sunday, according to the signatory list.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the text of the declaration had been finalized and that Kiev's positions had been taken into account.
The list of countries that signed the final declaration was displayed by the organizers on the screens of the press center at the Buergenstock resort where the summit was held.
The document was signed by 79 countries out of 91 present, but Armenia, Bahrain, Brazil, the Holy See, India, Indonesia, Libya, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates did not sign it.
The Ukraine conference is taking place this weekend at the Bürgenstock resort near Lucerne. It includes 92 countries and 55 heads of state, as well as eight organizations, including the EU, the Council of Europe, and the UN. However, US President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and leaders of many other countries did not attend. Some participants, such as US Vice President Kamala Harris and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left early.
Russia was not invited to the summit. The Kremlin commented that trying to find solutions to the Ukrainian conflict without Moscow's involvement is completely illogical and unpromising.
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