Russian foreign minister derides Switzerland as ‘openly hostile country’
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described Switzerland as an "openly hostile country" in an interview.
As a result, Switzerland is not suitable for negotiations on the Ukraine conflict, Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency Ria Novosti on Friday.
Lavrov said in an interview with Russian radio stations that Switzerland had turned from a neutral country into an “openly hostile country”. It was therefore not suitable for conducting peace negotiations on Ukraine. He was apparently referring to the peace conference planned to be held at Bürgenstock, canton Nidwalden, in June.
About a week ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticised the conference. Russia was not invited, he said, although nothing could be decided without Moscow. Putin further suggested that because no Russian delegation was going to attend, it could then be claimed that Russia was refusing to negotiate. He described the situation as “a real cabinet of curiosities”.
Without Zelensky’s 10-point plan
Lavrov said that Russia respected China’s position. Its representatives had spoken out in favour of convening a conference that would be acceptable to Russia and Ukraine.
The 10-point plan of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should be left aside completely, Lavrov further stated. Instead, the basis on which Russia would be prepared to negotiate should be discussed first.
According to Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, Lavrov was the first person he spoke to, in New York in January, about the concrete organisation of a peace conference. At that time, Cassis emphasised to Lavrov that Switzerland wanted to openly discuss all points of view and explore all possible routes to peace.
Adapted from German by DeepL/kc
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
More
Heimatort, sweet Heimatort: the unique Swiss concept of home
More
You won’t find any Swiss in these countries
More
Is Geneva prepared for Trump’s – and others’ – cuts to foreign aid?
More
Swiss-EU economic relations in eight charts
More
Wealthy Americans seek refuge from Donald Trump in Swiss banks
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.