We need to form common fighting fist - expert on Global Peace Summit in Switzerland

He expressed this opinion on Espreso TV.

"As of now, China insists that the Russian Federation should be present at the meeting in Switzerland. This means that, as of today, there will be no Chinese representative at the Peace Summit. As for this Global Peace Summit, I think the most we can expect from it is some kind of agreed text by those who will be there. But you have to understand that if China is not there, then there will be no whole range of countries from the so-called Global South. I think this will only affect the statistics, no more and no less, because it will be enough to simply, pardon the slang, a reinforced concrete union of those who are committed to the idea of democracy, who are committed to the idea of the civilised world and its future," Roman Bezsmertnyi said.

According to him, we could end up in the same situation as we did with the Budapest Memorandum with China, i.e. just joined. And even in 2011, China confirmed these guarantees in writing, and a bilateral agreement was signed to confirm the real guarantees. But this does not prevent China from saying: We have nothing to do with the situation, we did not create it.

"Obviously, everything here needs to be weighed very carefully and we need to understand the extent and what the possible scenarios are. As for me, realising that the situation is developing not by decreasing escalation, but by increasing escalation, then, as the classical system says, we need to cement this core, strengthen it and move on not just to words and texts, but to unite this core, form a common fighting fist, form a headquarters. At least in Geneva, if it becomes clear that China will not be there, as well as the so-called countries of the Global South, then we should immediately move on to strengthening and talking about where to go next," the diplomat concluded.

• At Ukraine's request, Switzerland will host the Global Peace Summit on 15-16 June.
• On April 24, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that, according to intelligence, Russia has a specific plan to disrupt the Peace Summit.