Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said early on Saturday that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would visit Turkey next month, noting his enthusiasm for peace talks in which Ankara could play a decisive role.
He made the remarks during a visit to Istanbul by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he greeted as his “dear friend.”
After more than two hours of talks at the Vahdettin mansion in Istanbul, Erdoğan also endorsed Kiev’s membership in NATO and offered a strong defense of Ukraine’s independence, declaring that Russia’s invasion contravened international law.
Noting that Turkey had made the “greatest effort” of any country in previous diplomatic attempts and highlighted Ankara’s role in a deal to allow Ukraine to export grain from the Black Sea, Erdoğan insisted that Turkey had the “most sincere desire” to see Kiev and Moscow return to the negotiating table.
Zelenskyy also noted that “Turkey is ready to take a leading role” in the kyiv peace plan.
Both Erdoğan and Zelenskyy expected the grain export deal to be extended soon, with the Turkish leader adding that it would make sense to start renewing it for longer periods than every two months. Erdoğan said he would initially discuss with Putin the idea of extending the agreement to three-month periods, but later suggested that the entire program should last up to two years to help fight hunger in the poorest nations.
The Turkish president has played a role strategic balancing act in the course of the war. while in general terms condemning the illegality of Putin’s invasion and the supply of Bayraktar drones to Ukrainian forces, Turkey has also become a key route to avoid sanctions and cannot afford to alienate Moscow due to its strong energy dependence in Russia.
Erdoğan was quick to show his support for Putin during Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny last month, just as Putin had backed him amid Turkey’s still-very opaque 2016 coup attempt.
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