Dozens of countries will take part in a Saudi-hosted conference beginning on Friday that aims to sway developing countries to support a Ukrainian peace plan and its demands that Russia withdraw troops from its territory.
The conference of national security advisers, which will run until Sunday, follows a similar meeting in Copenhagen, as Ukraine increases its efforts to engage key developing countries in isolating Moscow internationally ahead of a planned “peace summit” that Kyiv is pushing to arrange before the end of the year.
“The value [of the summits] is actually trying to nudge the Global South countries and ourselves to find some basic agreements around which the global peace summit could then be organised,” said a senior European Commission official who requested anonymity to preview the meeting.