World leaders push for ‘Olympic truce’ in Ukraine, Middle East

Burgenstock, Switzerland: Some of the world’s most powerful leaders have backed a French proposal for a temporary halt to several conflicts around the globe, including in Ukraine, during next month’s Olympic Games.

Leader of the Group of Seven, which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, urged “all countries to observe the Olympic Truce individually and collectively”.

Paris will host the Games from July 26 to August 11, followed by the Paralympics from 28 August to 8 September, and French president Emmanuel Macron is pushing for pauses in Russia’s war on Ukraine as well as the conflicts in the Middle East and Sudan.

“It was a French request, a good request, it was unanimously included,” Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who chaired the G7, told reporters during her final news conference at the summit in southern Italy.

The statement came as more than 90 nations gathered at a Swiss Alpine resort to plot the first steps toward peace in Ukraine, even though the peace summit is unlikely to bring any major breakthroughs because Russia isn’t attending.

The presidents of Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Somalia joined dozens of Western heads of state, other senior government leaders and high-level envoys at the meeting, in the hopes that Russia could join in one day.

Russia has previously reacted coolly to the proposal to temporarily stop its offensive in Ukraine, saying Kyiv might use it as an opportunity to regroup and rearm.

The United Nations in November proposed the duration of the Olympic truce, from one week before the start of the Games until one week after the closing of the Paralympics.

Seeking to suspend armed conflicts under an Olympic truce is a longstanding tradition, dating back to the ancient Olympic Games in Olympia in 776 BC. It aimed to ensure a halt to all hostilities, allowing the safe passage and participation of athletes and spectators.