China News Service, March 7 (Reporter Meng Xiangjun) The Ukrainian conflict has entered the 12th day. Ukraine and Russia have taken the first step towards a political settlement and will wait for the third round of negotiations to start.
Although analysts generally believe that the current negotiations are difficult to achieve substantive results, the impact of the situation on the world may be greater than expected.
For example, countries' emphasis on neutrality: on the one hand, Switzerland rarely broke the tradition of neutrality and announced sanctions against Russia.
On the one hand, one of the important conditions that Russia put forward when negotiating with Ukraine is to ask Ukraine to return to neutrality.
On March 3, local time, the Russian and Ukrainian delegations held the second round of negotiations in Belarus.
What is neutrality?
Why is neutrality crucial for some countries?
[Switzerland breaks neutrality sanctions against Russia]
On February 27, local time, according to foreign media reports, Switzerland broke its "long-standing tradition of political neutrality" and announced that it would take measures that match the EU's sanctions against Russia in response to Russia's "invasion" of Ukraine.
Swiss Confederation President Cassis said it was a "unique and difficult" decision but "morally necessary".
"Our neutrality is beyond doubt, and we must leave room for diplomatic mediation, but this does not prevent us from fighting back." Cassis believes.
The Swiss side will freeze Russian assets in Sweden, including sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mishustin and Foreign Minister Lavrov.
According to statistics from the Russian Central Bank, between $5 billion and $10 billion in private funds flow to Switzerland every year.
As a European country, Switzerland has also closed its airspace to Russia, making itself one of the 36 countries that Russia has countered.
Data map: Aeroflot training center, pilots use simulators to simulate flight.
Switzerland likes to assert itself on the world stage by emphasizing its status as a permanent neutral country.
From 2021 to 2022, a series of important meetings between Russia and the United States, including summit summits, high-level diplomatic dialogues, and strategic stability consultations, will be hosted in Switzerland.
Among them, at the Russia-US summit in June 2021, more than 5.17 million Swiss francs were spent on security, and tens of millions of dollars were spent on repairing the meeting villa and planting turf.
The costs are shared by the Swiss federal, cantonal and municipal governments.
A senior official of the Swiss Federal Parliament commented that the Russia-U.S. summit has enabled “Geneva to return to the center of political activities and high-level meetings after the difficult period of the epidemic. This is a kind of patent for us.” It also introduced: “Geneva is An international arbitration venue for multilateral diplomacy, disarmament negotiations and conflict resolution."
On June 16, 2021 local time, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden met at a villa in Geneva, Switzerland.
At that time, the Kremlin website also published a telegram of Putin's thanks to the Swedish side for hosting the meeting.
Today, Switzerland breaks with the tradition of neutrality.
According to Reuters, Switzerland has come under increasing pressure, both from the West and at home, to become a potential mediator.
It is increasingly difficult to maintain a balance between "standing with the West" and "maintaining traditional neutrality".
For example, a fund to help Ukraine that has only been in operation for four months was jointly established by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland.
[Russia demands Ukraine's neutrality]
On February 28, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron that Ukraine's problems can only be solved if "Russian legal interests are unconditionally considered" in the security field.
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin proposed three conditions: recognition of Russia's sovereignty over Crimea; Ukraine's "demilitarization" and "denazification"; Ukraine's guarantee of neutrality.
If Ukraine maintains its neutral status, it will not conclude treaties or agreements, especially military alliance treaties, that contradict this status.
In 2014, the situation in Ukraine was a major turning point. The Yanukovych regime was overthrown, the Crimea was thrown into Russia, and armed conflicts broke out in Donetsk and Luhansk.
In December of the same year, Uzbekistan's Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) passed a law allowing the country to renounce its non-aligned status and restart the NATO route.
File:U.S. Capitol Hill.
The U.S. Congress has also passed the Military Aid Ukraine Act and the Russia Sanctions Act.
Moscow has more than once declared the importance of maintaining Ukraine's non-aligned status.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that this status is important to ensure the security of the European Atlantic and is also in Ukrainian's own fundamental interests.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev pointed out that by abandoning non-alignment, the Kyiv regime "turned Ukraine into a potential military rival of Russia".
The Russian Satellite News Agency commented that "Kyiv and Moscow are getting farther and farther away, but Washington is ecstatic on the other side of the ocean."
Since then, the seeds of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict have been planted.
[Why is neutrality important? 】
On the streets of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, the streets are empty and pedestrians are hard to find.
Permanently neutral countries generally refer to countries that undertake the obligation of permanent neutrality in foreign relations based on international treaties and consensus.
Currently, there are 7 permanent neutral countries recognized internationally, namely Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Costa Rica and Turkmenistan.
The largest distribution in Europe, one each in Latin America and Asia.
To become a permanent neutral country, a sovereign country needs to voluntarily undertake the obligation of permanent neutrality.
In addition, other countries or international organizations need to recognize and guarantee their relevant status.
Thick smoke hangs over the city of Kyiv, Ukraine.
A permanent neutral country shall not wage war against other countries except in self-defense; shall not conclude treaties or agreements that contradict its neutrality, especially military alliance treaties; in wars with other countries, it shall abide by the rules of neutrality; and shall not take any actions involved in the war.
Correspondingly, no country may wage war against neutral countries, nor may war or other military acts be waged on the territory of such countries.
Putin wants Ukraine to return to a non-aligned state and exist in a neutral position, which is actually the most favorable situation for Russia, Ukraine and neighboring countries.
If Ukraine becomes a long-term strategic buffer zone between Russia and NATO, it should be able to act as a "fire-extinguishing valve" and a "speed bump", reducing the possibility of direct conflict between Russia and NATO.
For Ukraine itself, stability and peace can be achieved without war on its territory.
But now that the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations have just started, the gunfire in Ukraine has not stopped, and the road to peace is still very long.
(over)