The Saudi Arabia-sponsored “peace talks” failed to accomplish anything. Ukraine was hoping to bring on board more “neutral” countries supporting Ukraine’s policy. That didn’t happen, and the Ukrainians were no doubt disappointed that the big Saudi sponsored dog and pony show failed to do anything to help Ukraine objectively.
Russia, of course, did not attend because Russia was not invited. Had Russia been invited, Ukraine would not have shown up, so the die was cast right from the start: No Russia, no peace.
The 40 countries in attendance could not agree on a common statement, so the “peace conference” ended without any statement on its alleged accomplishments or any declaration for a way forward.
The meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia no doubt was designed by the United States to try and convince the BRICS countries to not support Russia on Ukraine. BRICS consists of Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa with a number of other countries applying for membership.
Brazil, India, China and South Africa attended the peace conference, which also included Iran. China said that the conference was useful and that it hoped to see another conference in the future. China has been posing as a mediator in the Ukraine-Russia dispute.
China could be regarded as a swing country were a peace agreement to be reached in a consensus without Russia. But that is a far fetched proposition, and China is playing the game to keep the US from pressuring it further with sanctions.
China’s economy is presently in serious trouble, and there are purges going on in China’s leadership, including the removal of its foreign minister Qin Gang, and dismissal of the top leadership of China’s missile forces. All of this suggests that China’s leadership, led by Xi Jinping, is under assault.
Should the economy continue to crumble, and as more and more foreign investors decouple from China, Xi’s future is uncertain and dark clouds circle over the faltering Chinese Communist regime.
Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US had steadily opposed any negotiations with Russia on Ukraine. Attempts by France and Germany, Turkey and Israel have all been blown out of the water by US objections to any deals. US policy, insofar as it can be determined by its actions, is to help Ukraine win the war against Russia while the US did its utmost to provoke regime change in Russia.
Two things are now clear: The effort to overthrow the Putin government in Russia appears to have failed with Putin seemingly back in firm control. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian counter offensive against Russian forces in eastern and southern Ukraine has proven to be a costly failure, and that failure, in turn, has repercussions in NATO.
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