UN Security Council leaders’ meeting ‘unrealistic’ — Kremlin

Holding a summit between Russia, US, China, France and UK cannot happen at present, Dmitry Peskov has said

Moscow is still ready and willing to discuss the most pressing issues with the leaders of the other four permanent UN Security Council members, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. However, such a summit can hardly be expected under the present circumstances, he added.

An idea to hold a five-side meeting between the leaders of Russia, the US, China, France and the UK was first put forward by Putin back in January 2020. At that time, the Russian president said he wished to discuss various international issues with the other leaders. The initiative was initially positively received by all four other nations but the US and its allies were allegedly reluctant to make it happen, according to TASS.

In 2021, Putin stated that he still expected the summit to take place at some point. In February 2022, roughly a week before hostilities between Kiev and Moscow broke out, Peskov stated that the Russian leader’s initiative was “still on the table.” He also said the rising tensions in Europe at the time would have been one of the major issues on the agenda if the meeting took place. “This topic should be discussed at such a high level,” the Kremlin spokesman said at the time.

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Speaking to Russian media outlet Izvestia on Wednesday, Peskov said that “the president remains open to contacts but the prospect of such a meeting [looks] unrealistic for known reasons.”

Relations between Russia, the US and Western allies have seen a sharp downturn in the wake of the Ukraine conflict. Moscow has repeatedly described the ongoing hostilities as a proxy war waged against it by the West, and has accused Washington and its allies of intentional escalation. The US has repeatedly spoken about the need to “weaken” Russia, with President Joe Biden vowing that Moscow would “never” win against Kiev.

The US, France and the UK are among Kiev’s major backers, supplying Ukraine with military hardware and ammunition.

Contacts between the leaders of Russia and Western nations have also virtually ceased over the course of the conflict. Putin last talked to Biden by phone in February 2022, before the ongoing hostilities broke out. France’s Macron and Putin maintained contacts by phone over the first months of the conflict but these also ceased by the end of 2022.