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War in Ukraine: two days of international conference in Switzerland to think about reconstruction

2022-07-04T07:04:57.274Z


A conference will be held in Lugano (Switzerland) to draw the outlines of the future reconstruction of Ukraine, while Russia continues


An international conference to think about the future.

In Lugano, political leaders, international institutions and representatives of the private sector will try Monday and Tuesday to draw the outlines of the future reconstruction of Ukraine, where Russia has continued to wage a destructive war for more than four months.

The “task is really colossal” if only in the liberated territories, recognized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday, whose Swiss hosts hoped to come in person but who will participate – as he is now used to – by videoconference. .

And "we need to liberate 2,000 villages and towns in eastern and southern Ukraine", he added, in a conflict whose outcome remains uncertain despite substantial military and financial aid from the allies of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian delegation made up of a hundred people

Its Prime Minister Denys Schmigal arrived on site on Sunday - suit and tie - accompanied by the speaker of parliament, Rouslan Stefantchouk - polo shirt and khaki pants - in a Swiss air force aircraft.

The two men were welcomed by the President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis.

The President of the Swiss Confederation 🇨🇭 @ignaziocassis welcomes the Prime Minister of #Ukraine 🇺🇦 @Denys_Shmyhal to #Lugano for the reconstruction conference which opens tomorrow.

#URC2022 https://t.co/uTgsh4de0d

— Ambassador Chasper Sarott (@SwissAmbTana) July 3, 2022

In total, the Ukrainian delegation will number around a hundred people to meet political leaders, international institutions and representatives of the private sector.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, whose country has just taken over the EU Presidency for six months, and her counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki from Poland, the country hosting far the most Ukrainian refugees will be in Lugano to draw the outline of a sort of “Marshall Plan”, named after the American economic program which had made it possible to raise Western Europe from the ruins of the Second World War.

A meeting planned before the war

The conference had been planned long before Russia invaded the country and was initially to discuss reforms in Ukraine and in particular the fight against endemic corruption before being reoriented towards reconstruction.

It will not be a donors' conference but rather to define the principles and priorities of a reconstruction process.

The question has arisen of the point of discussing reconstruction when there is no end in sight to the war and the figures range from tens to hundreds of billions of dollars.

Read alsoUkraine “needs a Marshall plan” for its reconstruction, judge Olaf Scholz

For Robert Mardini, director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, while reconstruction itself will have to wait until the end of the fighting, it is vital to give "a positive perspective to civilians", he explained to the RTS public channel.

The Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) has estimated the damage to buildings and infrastructure so far at nearly $104 billion.

The country's economy has already lost 600 billion dollars according to some estimates.

“A compass” for the work ahead

For Simon Pidoux, the Swiss ambassador in charge of the conference, it is too early to try to estimate all the needs, insisting that Lugano should instead provide "a compass" for the work ahead.

“I think the effort will last for years, even decades,” he said.

The European Investment Bank is to propose the creation of a new fund for Ukraine, which could eventually reach 100 billion euros, according to people familiar with the plan.

The United Kingdom, one of Ukraine's most active allies, will notably support the reconstruction of the city and the region of kyiv, at the request of President Zelensky, the British Foreign Office said on Sunday.

Maximum security

London also intends to work with Kyiv and its allies to host the Ukraine Recovery Conference in 2023 and will establish an office in London to help coordinate these reconstruction efforts.

If Lugano is the third financial center of Switzerland and a very popular vacation spot, including many rich Russians, it is not used to receiving this type of international diplomatic meeting.

But the President of the Confederation is from here and the hosts want to avoid any incident.

Under a scorching sun, the police patrolled the security perimeter around the Palais des Congrès on Sunday, which is to accommodate delegations for two days, a few steps from Lake Lugano enclosed in the setting of a majestic mountain circus .

All afternoon a police launch inspected one by one the passengers of the many pedal boats, who had come to cool off on the water.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2022-07-04

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