MANILA, Philippines – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked his Philippine counterpart Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for confirming Manila’s attendance at the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland on June 15 and 16.
Malacañang has yet to say if Marcos himself will fly to Europe for the conference or will send a high-level official on his behalf, but the Philippine government’s participation will likely not sit well with Russia, which is not invited to the peace summit and has called the event meaningless.
“We discussed the inaugural Global Peace Summit and the importance of Southeast Asian countries being represented there. I am pleased that the Philippines will participate in the summit,” Zelenskyy said in a tweet after his meeting with Marcos in Manila on Monday, June 3.
The meeting between the two leaders, although high-profile, was mostly kept under wraps, with Malacañang only confirming Zelenskyy’s visit on Monday morning, when Ukrainian officials were already in the Palace.
The Philippines, which has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is only the third Asian country that Zelenskyy has visited since the war broke out in February 2022.
It follows his visit to Singapore, where he accused Russia and China of trying to disrupt the peace summit on Ukraine later this month.
He made the statement during his surprise appearance at the Shangri-La Dialogue, dubbed as Asia’s premier defense forum, which had Marcos as keynote speaker on its opening night.
Marcos and Zelenskyy failed to meet during that conference. Marcos had left the country by Friday night, while Zelenskyy only arrived in the city-state on Saturday evening.
Marcos, like Zelenskyy, took advantage of the event to criticize China over what he described as “illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive actions” in the West Philippine Sea.
Zelenskyy subsequently called out China for allegedly trying to convince other countries not to take part in the upcoming peace summit.
China has declined invitation to attend the summit, with Reuters previously reporting that Beijing’s conditions weren’t met, particularly that Russia must also recognize the conference.
Zelenskyy is hoping the peace summit would find solutions to issues on nuclear security, food security, and detention of war prisoners, among others.
Ukraine has said 31,000 of its soldiers have been killed since the war broke out; Russia confirmed in September 2022 that the death toll among its soldiers was less than 6,000, but has not updated the figure since. Both countries are believed to have been understating the fatalities. – Rappler.com