The Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP) has hosted ten meetings between Russian and Ukrainian interlocutors since the outbreak of the war, engaging in unofficial diplomatic discussions.

Thomas Greminger, a former high-ranking Swiss diplomat and current director of GCSP, revealed to Swiss public broadcaster RTS on Friday that these meetings, part of "Track II diplomacy," involved think tank members and former government officials rather than official representatives.

Greminger, who served as Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from 2017 to 2020, noted that the OSCE includes 57 member states, among them Russia, Ukraine, the United States, and Switzerland.

A framework for ceasefire discussions

In an interview with SonntagsZeitung, published on Sunday, Greminger disclosed that the GCSP, in collaboration with international experts, has developed a ‘Ceasefire Toolkit’ aimed at facilitating a truce in Ukraine. This framework was presented to key stakeholders in the conflict during an informal meeting in Geneva this past week.

These discussions come in the wake of the recent Bürgenstock peace summit, which underscored divisions between Western nations and the Global South regarding approaches to resolving the conflict. Photo by Florian Golay / GCSP, Wikimedia commons.