Indonesia defence minister Prabowo proposes demilitarised zone, UN referendum for Ukraine peace plan

SINGAPORE – Indonesia’s defence minister on Saturday

proposed a peace plan for the war in Ukraine,

calling for a demilitarised zone and a United Nations referendum in what he called disputed territory.

Mr Prabowo Subianto called on defence and military officials from around the world gathered at the

Shangri-La Dialogue

in Singapore to issue a declaration calling for a cessation in hostilities.

He proposed a multi-point plan, including a ceasefire “in place at present positions of both conflicting parties”, and establishing a demilitarised zone by withdrawing 15km from each party’s forward position.

The demilitarised zone should be observed and monitored by a peacekeeping force deployed by the UN, he said, adding that a UN referendum should be held “to ascertain objectively the wishes of the majority of the inhabitants of the various disputed areas”.

“I propose that the Shangri-La Dialogue find a mode of... voluntary declaration urging both Ukraine and Russia to immediately start negotiations for peace,” Mr Prabowo said.

Indonesia’s proposal follows

President Joko Widodo’s visit in 2022 to Moscow and Kyiv,

where he offered to play peace broker between their leaders and rekindle peace talks. He was also chairman of the Group of 20 major economies at the time.

Speaking on the same panel, Mr Josep Borrell, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, noted that if military support for Ukraine stopped, the war would end quickly – but with the country’s sovereignty falling to outside aggression.

“We cannot stop supporting Ukraine militarily because we don’t want the peace which is... the peace of the surrender; the peace of the stronger,” Mr Borrell said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

has proposed a 10-point peace plan,

which calls on Russia to withdraw all its troops from Ukraine. Chief diplomatic adviser Ihor Zhovkva has said Ukraine had no interest in a ceasefire that locks in Russian territorial gains. REUTERS