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90 countries, organisations signed up for Ukraine summit   

The G7, running from Thursday to Saturday, will look at ways to use frozen Russian assets to provide fresh aid to Ukraine, invaded by Russia in February 2022…reports Asian Lite News

Ninety states and organizations have so far registered to take part in a summit aiming to pave the way for peace in Ukraine that Switzerland will host from June 15-16, the Swiss government said on Monday.

Russia has not been invited to the summit, but the government said in a statement that the gathering will aim to “jointly define a roadmap” on how to involve both it and Ukraine in a future peace process.

World leaders will gather in Switzerland this weekend to try to lay out a roadmap for an eventual peace process for Ukraine — albeit without Russia.

The gathering at the luxury Burgenstock resort, on a mountain ridge overlooking Lake Lucerne, comes immediately after the G7 summit in southern Italy, during which the wealthy democracies will also discuss Ukraine in the presence of its president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

The G7, running from Thursday to Saturday, will look at ways to use frozen Russian assets to provide fresh aid to Ukraine, invaded by Russia in February 2022.

Zelensky will then head to Switzerland, to be joined by G7 and other leaders on Saturday and Sunday for what is being billed as the first “Summit on Peace in Ukraine.”

“We would like to have a very broad process with a view to lasting, just peace in Ukraine,” Swiss President Viola Amherd told a press conference in Bern on Monday.

She said the event would lay the groundwork “for a future peace summit that would involve Russia.”

“The conference will focus on topics of global interest — nuclear security, food security and humanitarian aspects,” she added.

Switzerland invited more than 160 delegations, representing countries and international organizations.

Amherd said more than 90 confirmations had been received so far — around half from European nations — with about 50 percent of countries represented by their heads of state or government.

Attendees include French President Emmanuel Macron, US Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Organized at Ukraine’s request, the outcome of the summit remains uncertain, though Switzerland is hoping to secure a joint final declaration.

“We need to do everything we can to bring an end to this violence,” Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told the press conference.

“At the end of this road there is not just world stability and safety but also the end of suffering for millions of victims,” he said.

The program, sculpted by Bern, draws on a 10-point peace plan presented by Zelensky in late 2022. Ukraine hopes to gain broad international support for its conditions to end the war.

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Most EU countries will be in recession in fourth quarter

The forecast projects real GDP growth in both the EU and euro area at 0.3 per cent — well below the 1.5 per cent and 1.4 per cent expected in the previous forecast from July…reports Asian Lite News

European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni warned that the outlook for next year has “weakened significantly”, and that most European Union (EU) countries will be in recession in the fourth quarter of this year.

The EU economy is now “at a turning point” Gentiloni said while addressing a press conference in Brussels on Friday shortly after the European Commission announced that it had slashed its forecast for economic growth next year.

The European Commission’s autumn forecast predicted falling economic output in the last three months of this year and the first months of 2023, reports Xinhua news agency.

Elevated uncertainty, high energy price pressures, the erosion of households’ purchasing power, a weaker external environment, and tighter financing conditions are expected to tip the EU, the euro area and most member states into recession in the last quarter of 2022.

For 2023 as a whole, the forecast projects real GDP growth in both the EU and euro area at 0.3 per cent — well below the 1.5 per cent and 1.4 per cent expected in the previous forecast from July.

“The surge in energy prices and rampant inflation are now taking over and we are facing a very difficult period both from a social and economic point of view,” Gentiloni stressed.

“After a surprisingly strong first half of the year, the EU economy lost momentum in the third quarter, and recent survey data point to a contraction for the winter,” he said.

In addition, inflation has continued to rise faster than expected.

Accelerating and broadening price pressures in the first ten months of the year have moved the expected inflation peak to the fourth quarter of this year, and lifted the yearly inflation rate projection to 9.3 per cent in the EU and 8.5 per cent in the euro area.

Inflation is expected to decline in 2023, but to remain high at 7.0 per cent in the EU, and 6.1 per cent in the euro area.

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