The complete lack of focus has led some to question whether the Paris Peace Forum can achieve anything with regard to Gaza, POLITICO reports.
French President Emmanuel Macron has a huge to-do list planned for this week: tackling the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, dealing with artificial intelligence and stopping the melting of the ice caps. And that’s not all the topics of this week’s diplomatic marathon in Paris, which will be attended by leaders, diplomats and NGO workers from around the world. What exactly Macron will be able to achieve, however, remains to be seen.
Delegates gathered for the Paris Peace Forum. It is an annual assembly and one of Macron’s many diplomatic projects, tasked with tackling global issues from migration to climate change. Solving the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is the latest addition to the meeting’s agenda.
Macron’s aide said on Thursday heads of state and foreign ministers would discuss “concrete ways” to improve humanitarian access in the Gaza Strip and meet the population’s needs for water, food, medicine and fuel. However, several foreign diplomats said there was only a week to prepare for the summit and that access to the Palestinian enclave remained dependent on Israel, raising scepticism about what would be achieved in Paris.
Progress on other topics under discussion also seems difficult. The French initiative for a global tax on environmental transition has stalled, and Russia’s absence is the elephant in the room in negotiations on Arctic ice preservation. One EU diplomat, who like others quoted in this article was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue, said:
There’s an international overkill of conferences with similar participants. It’s a lot about France’s visibility on the global stage.
Macron is not the only leader continuing this string of global summits: This month, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak organised a summit on artificial intelligence and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez proposed a peace conference between Israel and the Palestinian territories, according to POLITICO.
As aid agencies warn that the Gaza Strip is running out of food and hospitals lack anaesthetics, pressure on Western countries to respond to the humanitarian crisis is rapidly intensifying. Gaza’s health ministry said Tuesday that Israel’s constant airstrikes have killed more than 10,000 Palestinians. Macron’s conference on Gaza will be a moment for Western countries to show the world that they care about the Palestinians. The same EU diplomat, referring to accusations the West is overlooking Palestinian loss of life while supporting Israel’s right to retaliate against Hamas attacks, noted:
I see the interest for France, it’s very timely, focuses on Gaza at time when everybody wants to redress the balance of attention. But given the late organization, lack of information … wouldn’t it have been better to do the conference a week later so that people are better prepared?
Another foreign diplomat in Paris emphasised that he had “mixed feelings” on the eve of the conference. According to the diplomat, “France has grand ambitions, but then it has to deal with the reality” in which the US is “playing a leading role” in the Middle East.
Macron’s conference on the humanitarian situation in Gaza illustrates the wider difficulties Europe faces in trying to resolve a conflict over which it has no leverage.
The summit in Paris is partly organised in response to a UN appeal for more funds for the Gaza Strip, which needs about $1.2 billion. However, it is not a pledging conference, and only a few countries, including France, will make announcements about new aid packages. The conference will look at “concrete ways” to deliver aid, but on this point, Elysee Palace officials are downplaying the chances of a quick result. An official for the French presidency said:
It’s no secret that access to Gaza for medicines, aid, is difficult, our aim will be work together with participants and with Israel and improve that access.
Except that Israel was not invited and is not excited about the conference at all. Israel’s envoy to the EU Haim Regev told:
Like many, we do not understand what’s going to happen there. We only hope that it will not turn into a kind of anti-Israeli platform to criticize Israel, to call for a cease-fire.
Michel Duclos, a former French ambassador to Syria, believes that inviting Israel would exacerbate tensions with neighbouring countries. He said:
If Israel had been invited, Arab countries would have been obliged to protest, criticize and maybe not come. So it’s a way of defusing the issue.
World leaders attending the event include European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Cyprus President Nicos Christodoulidis, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is not the only topic of discussion at the Paris Peace Forum, where delegates will also discuss limiting artificial intelligence, climate finance, saving melting glaciers and caps. However, here too, tangible results are not expected. Regarding melting glaciers and ice caps, the forum participants will agree on a “Paris Call”, which will be a political message and will include some concrete measures.
This year, the forum has taken on the additional task of implementing the initiatives put forward by Macron during the June summit on a new global financial pact, POLITICO reports.
At the summit, Emmanuel Macron proposed new forms of international taxation to finance the green transition, a priority shared by 38 other Paris Pact signatories. But the main achievement on this issue was the creation of a special task force, which will be publicly presented at the forum on Friday.
Perhaps it is the very purpose of the Paris Peace Forum, Macron’s 2017 project, which focuses on global issues rather than conflict. But the world is now facing real wars, including the war in Ukraine, as well as conflicts in the Caucasus and the Middle East. Duclos said:
Today this line is harder to hold. Global issues have been disrupted by geopolitical crises, it’s difficult to separate the two… the challenge is to take the crises into account and not be submerged by them.
He said the forum provided a valuable opportunity for delegations from rival countries such as the US and China to meet in an informal setting.
