EU Council President Charles Michel criticized China’s decision to boycott the Ukraine peace conference to be held in Switzerland in the coming days.
“It is disappointing that China will not be there,” Michel said on the sidelines of the meeting Thursday at the gathering of leaders from southern Italy’s seven advanced industrialized democracies.
China said late last month that it would not participate in the peace conference in Ukraine that Switzerland is hosting. Beijing pointed to a clear gap between the organization of the conference and China’s demands and the general expectations of the international community, making it difficult for China to participate, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
About 40 heads of state and government, along with delegations from 90 countries and organizations, are expected to attend the summit, which will be held this weekend at the Bürgenstock Resort on Lake Lucerne.
Russia was not invited and has dismissed the event as Western propaganda.
The aim of the summit is to pave the way for another peace summit with Russia’s participation. Food safety and nuclear safety will also be discussed.
Earlier on Thursday, Switzerland’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) reported attacks on state websites ahead of the summit.
The distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks hit government websites and organizations associated with top organizations by flooding them with requests.
“The attacks were expected and are believed to be linked to the summit. They resulted in minor failures that were within the specified tolerance. The operation of the affected units was not significantly affected,” the NCSC said in a statement.
