The United States is urging China to attend a planned summit on Ukraine this month in Switzerland, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told reporters on June 6. The spokesperson said China has attended previous summits and "their presence was helpful. We think their presence would be helpful here." Beijing, which has close ties with Moscow, has so far said it will stay away from the June 15-16 summit, saying the attendance of both sides is a prerequisite for any substantive peace conference. Russia has not been invited. Kyiv says more than 100 countries have accepted its invitation to the summit, which Moscow has said will be meaningless without Russia.