Mexico presents peace proposal to Russia and Ukraine

The Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard, presented to his counterparts from Russia, Serguei Lavrov, and from Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, separately and in the framework of the 77th General Assembly of the United Nations, the proposals in favor of the peace formulated by the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“Yesterday I was informed Marcelo Ebrard that he met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and that he told him that they saw our peace proposal well,” said López Obrador in his usual morning press conference, this Friday the 23rd.

Ebrard reported this Friday that met with Lavrov and “I shared President López Obrador’s proposal in favor of peace, as well as our ideas on the future of the Security Council.”

The chancellor took care of disseminating in his accounts on social networks paths photos of their meetings with Lavrov and Kuleba.

The core of the Mexican proposal is that a mission of world leaders in favor of peace travel to kyiv and Moscow to get a truce in the warof five years, during which the differences that led to the current conflict, unleashed with the invasion of Russian troops on February 24, can be negotiated in peace.

To integrate that mission, Mexico has proposed, among other leaders, the Secretary General of the UNAntónio Guterres, Pope Francis and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.

Ebrard presented the Mexican proposal to the UN General Assembly, when he spoke on Thursday 22 in the plenary of the current session.

He stated that the war in Ukraine “has brought food and fuel shortages, disrupted the world economy, polarized the multilateral system and generated a climate of mistrust and international uncertainty, adding to other conflicts that remain unresolved”.

He underlined the paralysis of the UN Security Council in the face of the conflict, highlighting its inaction to put an end to the armed aggression and direct a diplomatic process in search of a peaceful and negotiated solution.

The advice, “also has not been able to guarantee the necessary supply of humanitarian assistance nor has it fully endorsed the work of the secretary general and other actors to unlock Russian and Ukrainian grain and fertilizer exports.”

“For these reasons, the president of Mexico, aware of the individual and collective responsibility that we have, proposes that a delegation of heads of state and government encourage and accompany the efforts of the secretary general, to promote confidence-building measures” between Moscow and Kyiv.

The intention is to create a diplomatic channel that complements those that already exist to interact with the parties in conflict, reduce tensions and channel mediation, Ebrard said.

It would be about create the conditions to bring the parties closer to the mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of disputes set forth in the Charter of the United Nations”.

Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, described the Mexican proposal as “a Russian plan”, but López Obrador stressed that, according to the information he received from the Ebrard-Kuleba meeting, that comment was not authorized by the kyiv government.

In his speech before the General Assembly, Ebrard attributed the paralysis of the Security Council “to abuse of the so-called right of veto by some of its permanent members (China, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Russia)”.

He recalled that his country, together with France, has promoted an initiative that asks the permanent members to refrain from resorting to the veto in situations of mass atrocities. The project has so far received the support of 106 states.

In addition, Mexico and 83 other States promoted an accountability mechanism by which the General Assembly is urged to hold an emergency session every time a veto is registered in the Security Council, and invite the authors of that veto to explain his stance.

“Now it is time to decide if we want to take the subsequent steps to prevent the system from continuing to paralyze in the face of the massive suffering of people,” the Mexican foreign minister concluded.