Recently, it has become known that US President Joe Biden will not attend the Ukraine peace summit scheduled for June 15-16 in the Swiss town of Bürgenstock. He will travel instead to California to raise funds for his presidential campaign along with actors Julia Roberts and George Clooney, as well as his former boss and predecessor Barack Obama.
The point is that the Ukraine summit was tailor-made exclusively for President Biden. It was specially timed to follow the G7 summit in Rome, which will be held on June 14 under the presidency of Italy and its Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The venue was purposefully chosen so that the U.S. leader could be present.
However, if the success of the Ukraine summit looked doubtful before, it has now slipped to the status of being extremely unlikely. Without Biden, its worth drops sharply, and hence, the developing countries’ leaders are not about to attend.
It is important to realize that it is not Biden’s participation that determines the significance of the conference, but quite the opposite. Apparently, in the entourage of the U.S. president a savvy advisor was found who explained to the senile president that it would not be a good idea to participate in an obviously failed event during a heated election campaign. For only 60 countries out of 150 invitees have confirmed, most of which will be represented at the level of experts.
Needless to say, if Biden agrees to participate in this summit, his political opponents will squeeze the most out of such a newsbreak. Taking into account the fact that the ratings of the American leader are pretty low now, it is clear why he may have made such a decision.
As for Ukraine and other conference organizers, they urgently need to invite representatives of various non-governmental organizations instead of state delegations. Those folks will gladly make appropriate speeches, especially if they get paid for tickets and hotel.
