Saudi Arabia to host Ukraine-organised peace summit, India among countries invited

Saudi Arabia may host a summit on August 5 and 6 to find ways to negotiate between Russia and Ukraine amidst the ongoing war between the two countries. As per Wall Street Journal report, diplomats from around 30 countries may participate in the event including India.

An official of the Saudi Arabia government has said in a statement that Saudi Arabia plans to host a Ukraine-organised peace summit in early August. The summit will be aimed at starting negotiations over the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. The official said on the condition of anonymity that Ukraine, Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries may participate in the summit.

The official said no one is authorised to discuss the summit in public as of now. There is a possibility that a high-level official from US President Joe Biden’s administration will also join the summit. The reports of the summit came at a time when US national security advisor Jake Sullivan recently completed his visit to the Kingdom. As the event will be overseen by Kyiv, Russia’s attendance is not expected.

An official spoke to Associate Press on the matter and said the summit would be a follow-up step to the talks that took place in Copenhagen in June this year. Notably, in May 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah to talk to the nations attending the summit to back Ukraine in the ongoing war. So far, Arab nations have largely maintained a neutral stand on the matter as they have military and economic ties with Moscow.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman may look towards raising his profile on the international platform by hosting such peace talks. In the past, he has sought to reach a détente with Iran and pushed for peace between the Kingdom and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia and Russia have close relationships as they are part of the OPEC group. Notably, Biden and American lawmakers have expressed their displeasure over OPEC’s decision to cut oil production amidst a price rise due to the Russia-Ukraine war. Furthermore, there have been differences between the Kingdom and the West in the dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul that US intelligence agencies claimed took place on the orders of Prince Mohammed.

Russia Ukraine war

In February 2022, Russia launched a military action against Ukraine. Since then, Western countries have supported Ukraine in the war. Ukraine, which wants to join NATO countries, has approached several countries, including India, seeking support. However, India and several other countries have maintained a neutral stand. On the contrary, Western countries imposed heavy sanctions on Russia, resulting in a spike in energy prices in the international market.

Interestingly, India is among the top beneficiaries in all this mess as it found a silver lining and increased crude oil purchases from Russia. Recent reports suggested that India has saved around USD 7 billion in foreign exchange in 14 months by buying crude oil from Russia at a discounted price.