{"id":11234,"date":"2024-06-06T20:41:20","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T17:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/2024\/06\/pb-9\/"},"modified":"2024-11-20T20:38:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T17:38:10","slug":"can-high-level-diplomacy-turn-the-tide-of-the-ukraine-war-pavel-k-baev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/2024\/06\/can-high-level-diplomacy-turn-the-tide-of-the-ukraine-war-pavel-k-baev\/","title":{"rendered":"Can high-level diplomacy turn the tide of the Ukraine War? – Pavel K. Baev"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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World politics in the first half of June is set to be enlivened not only by elections in such major powers as India, Mexico and South Africa, but also by a heavy concentration of international summits, conferences and visits. Agendas are rich and diverse, as many global issues demand collective action, but one 27-months old calamity continues to demand priority attention \u2013 the Ukraine War. The high-intensity trench battles remain effectively deadlocked, but the political context of this long war keeps evolving, and the joint efforts of key world leaders as well as initiatives of smaller states may make a difference in deciding its outcome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first high-profile event in the sequence of June fora was the traditional Shangri La gathering in Singapore organized by the IISS<\/a> and attended by many security officials, providing inter alia a useful opportunity for talks<\/a> between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun. The discussions were understandably focused on conflict management in the dynamic Asia-Pacific region, but Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky opted to make<\/a> a long trip in order to make his case for broadening support for defeating the Russian aggression. He was quite disappointed in China\u2019s political drift<\/a> closer to Moscow\u2019s war-mongering, but continued his efforts in the Philippines, finding warmer response<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A very different international gathering happened in Normandy, France, where many dignitaries, including US President Joe Biden came to mark the 80th<\/sup> anniversary of allied landing, known as the D-Day<\/a>. For Biden, this ceremony will constitute a part of his state visit to France, but more importantly \u2013 and opportunity to connect with the success of President Ronald Reagan, who made a memorable speech at Pointe Du Hoc<\/a>, which paved the way for his re-election in 1984. Biden seeks to ascertain the strength of the trans-Atlantic ties and to reassure the concerned Europeans in his ability to gain the second presidential term, reducing the need in \u201cTrump-proofing<\/a>\u201d. President Emmanuel Macron aspires to be the strongest supporter of Ukraine, confirming its right<\/a> to use Western weapons for strikes deep into Russian territory, much to delight of Zelensky, who didn\u2019t miss a chance<\/a> to partake in the Normandy celebrations.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two events that are scheduled to take place nearly simultaneously are the Ukraine Recovery Conference<\/a> (Berlin, June 11-12) and the G7 summit (Borgo Egnazia, Italy, June 13-15), and both are set to strengthen the economic capacity, which is crucial for prevailing in the long war of attrition. The first one is more narrow-focused and is not that much about gathering new pledges for rehabilitating Ukraine \u2013 and more about coordinating aid, particularly for sustaining the work on rebuilding the energy infrastructure<\/a> targeted by constant Russian missile and drone attacks. The second one, which happens to be the 50th<\/sup> in the long track record of this exclusive \u201cclub\u201d, will deal with a wide range<\/a> of issues and engage with many invited guests, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan<\/a>, but the Ukraine War is certain to be a major focus of attention, and Zelensky<\/a> will try to make the maximum from this opportunity. One particular question ripe for a decision is the utilization of profits<\/a> from the Russian financial assets frozen in the European banks (first of all, Euroclear securities depository) for Ukraine\u2019s reconstruction, which will signify a major step toward a complete appropriation<\/a> of these assets, amounting to some 300 billion euro.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One common feature in all these events is Russia\u2019s absence, and this is in fact an issue for the event scheduled for June 15-16 in B\u00fcrgenstock, Switzerland \u2013 the Summit on Peace<\/a> in Ukraine. For many potential participants<\/a>, it is rather clear that it makes little sense to discuss prospects of peace-making without Russia; but alas, Moscow\u2019s uncompromising position makes it even less productive to discuss these prospects with Russia. President Vladimir Putin insists that any peace talks must acknowledge the \u201creality on the ground<\/a>\u201d, which essentially means rewarding his aggression, a disagreeable proposition even for the stake-holders that entertain the vision of freezing the war<\/a> along the current trench lines. Zelensky has invested huge efforts in organizing this summit and is disappointed in China\u2019s decision not to attend, while Beijing denies<\/a> his accusations in sabotaging the gathering. Russian diplomacy<\/a> has certainly attacked Zelensky\u2019s plan furiously and relentlessly, but is still can yield important results in expanding the support for a just peace beyond the Western coalition that is steadily increasing the volume and the quality of its military aid to Ukraine, rejecting Moscow\u2019s nuclear brinksmanship<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeking to escape from isolation, Putin tries to boost the profile of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, an event to which hundreds of Western business and political leaders used to flock. This time, however, his agenda is reduced<\/a> to meetings with the leaders of Bolivia and Zimbabwe, and the advertised opportunities of doing business with Russia attract few entrepreneurs from the Global South conscious of the reputation risks. The summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) scheduled for early July<\/a> in Astana, Kazakhstan may offer a better opportunity for Putin to re-confirm his international credentials. The agreed accession of Belarus will, however, hardly erode China\u2019s traditional leadership<\/a> in the SCO focused on consolidation of its positions in Central Asia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most consequential of all fora will be the NATO summit in Washington D.C. on 9-11 July, where Ukraine expects to step on a \u201cbridge<\/a>\u201d to full membership in the Alliance. At the previous summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Zelensky pushed the accession claim rather too hard<\/a> and was disappointed with the hardheaded realism of most member-states. He has learned from that mistake and can gain many tangible gains this time by tapping into the deep pool of support<\/a> for Ukraine\u2019s defiant stance against relentless Russian attacks, while focusing more on the immediate needs and preparations for a new counter-offensive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is indeed only a sequence of victories on the battlefield that can ensure success of the broad international efforts to bring the war to a just and stable end. The summits of June and July are preparing the political ground for this progress, and that is why Moscow is not only engaging in desperate diplomatic counter-maneuvering, but also sustaining the offensive in order to demonstrate that the strategic initiative is still with the Russian forces. This war plan is, however, as flawed as was the initial blitzkrieg strategy aimed at capturing Kyiv and compelling Ukraine to capitulate. The heavy losses in fruitless attacks exhaust the not-so-big Russian battalions, and the combination of overheating and technological degradation of its economy undermine the capacity to sustain the war of attrition. Discussions on the parameters of a peace agreement may appear premature and unrealistic, but they are in fact as essential and timely as were the plans for rebuilding the world order made months before the memorable D-Day.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pavel K. Baev, Dr., Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO)<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Pavel K. Baev is a Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO). He is also Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for the U.S. and Europe at the Brookings Institution (Washington D.C.), Senior Associate Researcher at the Institut Fran\u00e7ais des Relations Internationales(IFRI, Paris), and Senior Associate Research Fellow at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI, Milan). His research interests include the transformation of the Russian military, the energy and security dimensions of the Russian-European relations, Russia\u2019s Arctic policy, Russia-China partnership, post-Soviet conflict management in the Caucasus and the Caspian Basin, and Russia\u2019s Middle East policy, which is supported by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. He writes a weekly column in Eurasia Daily Monitor<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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To cite this work:<\/strong> Pavel K. Baev, “Can high-level diplomacy turn the tide of the Ukraine War? “, Panorama<\/em>, Online, 06 June 2024, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Copyright@UIKPanorama.<\/em> All on-line and print rights reserved. Opinions expressed in works published by the Panorama<\/em> belongs to the authors alone unless otherwise stated, and do not imply endorsement by the IRCT, Global Academy, or the Editors\/Editorial Board of Panorama. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World politics in the first half of June is set to be enlivened not only by elections in such major powers as India, Mexico and South Africa, but also by a heavy concentration of international summits, conferences and visits. Agendas are rich and diverse, as many global issues demand collective action, but one 27-months old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":10566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[512,486,507],"tags":[656,621,644],"class_list":["post-11234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crisis-in-ukraine","category-opinion","category-russia","tag-english","tag-russia","tag-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}