Swiss expect ‘long and complex’ reconstruction process in Ukraine
President and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis says the planned Ukraine conference is Switzerland’s contribution for stability in Europe.
Cassis said the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2022) was not meant as a donor event but as a step towards reforms of the state, including good governance, decentralisation, the separation of powers and the fight against corruption.
Speaking at a news conference in Bellinzona on Monday, Cassis said the reconstruction process would not be easy.
“The war is still raging [in Ukraine] but we know that the time will come for reconstruction, and this will take a long time and be complex,” the Keystone-SDA news agency quotes him as saying.
It will need a broad political and diplomatic process, he added.
The conference on July 4 and July 5 in the city of Lugano was planned long before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February.
Zelensky
High-level delegations from about 40 countries and 20 international organisations have been invited to attend.
It is not clear yet whether the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, will attend the event in person or virtually, according to the Swiss foreign ministry.
The conference is due to address ”the priorities, methods and principles of reconstruction[…] and underline the broad support of international partners [….],” the ministry statementExternal link said.
Switzerland was asked to host the conference as a “long-standing partner of Ukraine in politics, business and culture,” it added.
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