In a bilateral meeting at the annual UN meeting marked by the war in Ukraine, Cassis, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, said Switzerland was ready to offer its good offices to Ukraine and Russia. No new announcement on such a power-protecting mandate was made after the meeting, according to the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA.
But early on Thursday morning the Russian foreign ministry tweeted a photo of the Lavrov-Cassis meeting on September 21 and a statement that Bern had been called on “to return to neutral state policy, which in previous years won the Confederation recognition in the international arena”.
In August, Ukraine agreed that Switzerland could represent its interests in Russia. However, Russia rejected the offer arguing that Switzerland was no longer neutral because it had joined Western sanctions against Russia.
Solidaritätsnetz International supports such initiatives of the Swiss authorities, as the Confederation has accumulated centuries of experience in mediation in the settlement of armed conflicts.