Bolivia Not to Attend Ukraine Conference in Switzerland

Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora has directed the government to abstain from the Ukraine conference hosted in Switzerland, revealed Bolivian Ambassador to Russia, Maria Luisa Ramos Urzagaste, in a statement to TASS.

"President Luis Arce Catacora has ordered our government not to participate in any schemes that do not take into account the genuine interests of the conflicting countries and don’t even analyze the deep roots of the crisis," she said.

"During the official visit of the Bolivian president to the Russian Federation, we had an opportunity to analyze various issues on the geopolitical agenda and we see with alarm that there are intentions of some forces to provoke conflicts and confrontation in different regions of the world."

According to the ambassador, Bolivia emphasizes that amid confrontations, fostering trust between the parties requires significant responsibility and determination, not only from those directly involved in the conflict but also from those exacerbating it.

"Bolivia believes that problems of this kind must be solved in an environment where all sides involved are present," she went on to say.

The Bolivian government perceives discussing matters concerning food security, nuclear safety, and freedom of navigation "within the confines of a select group of nations" as perilous, the ambassador emphasized.

"We see intentions to manipulate other countries on these sensitive issues," she continued.

"If a conference like this does not address the root causes of a lack of food security, for example, or discuss the role of unilateral and illegal sanctions outside the UN, it is clearly a manipulation," Maria Luisa Ramos Urzagaste said.

"Attempts to blame one country for the multiple crises that the planet is experiencing, which were caused by a unipolar world that is now in decline, is a distortion of reality."

President Arce participated in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, engaging in discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, meeting with the director-general of the Rosatom State Corporation, receiving honors from St. Petersburg State University, and contributing to the plenary session of SPIEF.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry had previously announced that Bern had invited over 160 delegations to the Burgenstock conference slated for June 15-16, including representatives from G7, G20, and BRICS nations.

Notably, Russia was not among the invitees. President Putin expressed that Russia would not insist on participation if unwelcome at the conference.