On 28 October, Malta hosted the third meeting of national security advisers and foreign policy advisers on the implementation of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Peace Formula and the principles of restoring peace in Ukraine, attended by representatives of states and international organisations.
According to the Ukrainian presidential office, the meeting was a follow-up to the consultations in the relevant format held in Copenhagen in June and in Jeddah in August.
The third meeting brought together diplomats from 66 countries and international organisations, including delegations from many countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. For comparison, the previous meeting was attended by 42 delegations. The growing number of participants in this format demonstrates the steady strengthening of international support for the principles underpinning the Ukrainian Peace Formula, presented by Volodymyr Zelenskyy almost a year ago as a basis for achieving sustainable, just and comprehensive peace.
In his speech, the head of the presidential office and head of the Ukrainian delegation to Malta, Andriy Yermak, thanked everyone in the room, as well as the leaders of all the countries whose representatives took part in the meeting.
"Your presence here is evidence that we are like-minded people. We are on the same side - the side of peace, the side of life," he said.
According to Yermak, preliminary consultations at the level of advisers made it possible to form a common vision of the preconditions for peace and a secure post-war world order. As a result of the meetings at the ambassadorial level in Kyiv, specific plans for the implementation of the Peace Formula were developed and international working groups were set up to focus on the technical issues of implementing the Formula.
According to him, more and more states that respect international law and the principles of the UN Charter are joining the development of the plan.
"The architecture we are creating can be a solution not only for Ukraine. It will be a universal structure that can and should be applied wherever there is a need to protect peace and justice," said Yermak.
The meeting in Malta discussed the specific directions of the Peace Formula and the progress in their implementation. Attention was focused on five key points of the Peace Formula: "Nuclear and Radiation Safety", "Food Security", "Energy Security", "Release of all Prisoners and Deportees" and "Restoration of Ukraine's Territorial Integrity and World Order".
Plans for each of them were developed by working groups that included representatives of diplomatic missions from different countries from all regions of the world. Each item of the plan was presented and commented on by representatives of different countries, as well as Ukrainian officials.
For example, members of the international working group and Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko presented a plan on nuclear and radiation safety aimed at the complete withdrawal of Russian military and civilian personnel, weapons and equipment from the territory of the Zaporizhzhya NPP and the transfer of control over the plant to Ukraine. The plan envisages strengthening the IAEA's role in monitoring compliance with the rules of operation of nuclear facilities, defining technical conditions for the safe return of ZNPP to Ukrainian control, and studying mechanisms of responsibility for failure to comply with the internationally recognised principle of nuclear safety.
The meeting participants also reviewed the implementation plan for the energy security point. Among other things, it envisages the development of an energy resilience model as part of a joint risk reduction strategy aimed at preventing energy security breaches and any further aggression using energy as an external lever of influence.
The First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy Yuliya Svyrydenko, together with representatives of an international working group, presented a plan to establish international security guarantees for uninterrupted food supplies. To this end, it is proposed to strengthen the protection of port and logistics infrastructure in Ukraine, ensure the demining of sea routes in the Black Sea necessary for safe navigation to Ukrainian ports, provide the necessary support for insurance of ships and cargo transported to and from Ukrainian seaports, etc.
In addition, a plan for the return of deported Ukrainian children, civilian hostages and prisoners of war was presented with the participation of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets. The action plan envisages the establishment of an international monitoring group and the definition of a mechanism for collecting information about deported children, civilian hostages and prisoners of war, gaining access to their places of detention, additional sanctions against Russia and its officials for violations of international humanitarian law, international pressure on Russia to provide the UN and the ICRC with unimpeded access to Ukrainian prisoners, etc.
A plan to implement the clause on compliance with the UN Charter and restore Ukraine's territorial integrity and world order was presented by Deputy Foreign Minister Mykola Tochytskyy and MP Halyna Mykhaylyuk. It aims to improve the existing mechanisms for implementing the basic principle of respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty enshrined in the UN Charter.
To achieve these goals, it is proposed to focus efforts on: reforming the UN Security Council and limiting the veto power; strengthening the role of the International Court of Justice by recognising the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court in all disputes over violations of the UN Charter and ensuring immediate enforcement of its decisions; and creating an early warning system for actions that violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.
"Each of our meetings amid this terrible war is evidence that we have become more than colleagues. We have become friends. I am convinced that the end of the largest war in Europe since the Second World War with a just, lasting and comprehensive peace will have a huge positive impact on other explosive conflicts unfolding around the world. And today we are sending a powerful new signal to all of humanity: we are bringing peace closer. A just, sustainable, long-lasting peace. For Ukraine. For the world," Yermak concluded.
The Ukrainian delegation also included Deputy Heads of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva and Andriy Sybiha, advisers to the Head of the Office of the President Darya Zarivna and Oleksandr Bevz.
The third peace summit on Ukraine started in Malta on Saturday. In his evening address, Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that the Ukrainian peace formula is gradually becoming a global one.