Russian Foreign Minister proposes Serbia as a potential location for talks between Russia and Ukraine, according to Russian media Izvestia.
Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said that the country is not planning on making any new investments in Russia until “clarity on the stability of the situation” in Ukraine is attained.
In an interview with CNN on the sidelines of this year’s Doha Forum, the foreign minister that investment in Moscow is currently “under a lot of review” and Qatar is not thinking about boosting its investments there until a “better environment and more political stability” is witnessed.
“Right now with the current situation we are not thinking about any new investments there. Even in Europe, until we have some clarity on the stability of the situation, well not entire Europe, but the areas where we are feeling that there are some tensions or we might have any political risk, because we have to look at it from all the dimensions,” Al-Thani said.
The Qatar Investment Authority’s (QIA) current and generous investments in the Russian gas giant company, Rosneft, is based on “commercial assessment” and is still in progress.
However, the Qatari envoy noted, QIA will cease to increase its investments for the time being.
Qatar’s consistent stance has been against the military escalations of the Russian invasion and the safeguarding of a nation’s sovereignty. However, the foreign minister has been maintaining his dialogue channels open with all relevant parties, adding that he frequently speaks to both his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts to “offer our help or contribution to de-escalate the situation and put an end to this war.”
This comes following the minister’s recent visit to Moscow, in an event where he condemned “everything” that stands to the contrary of the United Nations Charter. This means that the settlement of international disputes by peaceful means, refrain of the use of force, and adherence to the “sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of states” is important.
“What I believe and from my conversation with my counterpart there in Russia is that they are willing to engage on the demands that they have put forward,” Al-Thani said.
As for Kyiv, the minister noted, it is up to the government and the Ukrainian people’s decision wether to yield to those demands or not.
“We should focus on having a ceasefire, humanitarian corridors, bringing the humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and instead of having this conflict and disagreement in a battlefield, to be around the table.”
As reported by Reuters, China’s state-run Sinopec Group has also suspended talks regarding an important petrochemical investment and a gas marketing venture in Russia due to the government’s “call for caution as sanctions mount over” the Ukrainian crisis.
Following the Qatar-run investment and its Chinese counterpart, the two events are seen as a ‘crystallisation’ of a “trend of ‘soft sanctions’ on Russia by its non-Western partners.”
During a panel discussion at the Doha Forum, the  spokesman for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Majid Al-Ansari stressed that the Gulf country’s willingness to facilitate a dialogue between Moscow and Kyiv in “any way possible.”
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