The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan still hopes to hold a tripartite meeting with its Ukrainian and Russian counterparts, Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin respectively, according to statements made today by the Turkish press.
“When we met, Mr Zelensky was positive about a ‘Putin, Zelensky, Erdogan’ meeting, and if Mr Putin is in favor, this meeting, with God’s help, could take place in Istanbul or Ankara,” he said. Turkish president on the plane on which he was returning from Abu Dhabi last night.
Erdogan, who had offered to mediate between in Moscow and in Kiev, in order to avoid a conflict, went to the Ukrainian capital in early February to meet with Zelensky and offered to host talks between the two presidents.
On his return, he said he had received “a positive response from (Vladimir) Putin” to his invitation, but a date remains to be determined.
“I will personally verify by phone with Mr. Putin what he is thinking. We will continue to monitor the case. A war would not be good for the region,” Erdogan insisted.
According to NATO, Russia is still gathering troops near the border with Ukraine today, despite the announcement yesterday, Tuesday, of a “partial” withdrawal of its troops from Moscow.
The Turkish head of state, who paid his first official visit to the United Arab Emirates in ten years on Monday and Tuesday, also referred to Turkey’s rapprochement with Saudi Arabia.
“We are continuing our positive dialogue with Saudi Arabia,” he said.
He had announced his visit to Riyadh in early January “in early February”, but no date has been confirmed so far.
It would be the Turkish president’s first visit since the 2018 assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Kasogi to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Erdogan had then accused “the Saudi government at the highest level” of ordering the assassination, excluding the king.
A critic of the government in Saudi Arabia, after being close to it, Jamal Kasogi, a resident of the United States, wrote an article in the Washington Post.
The powerful man from Ankara, on the other hand, confirmed the visit “in March” of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Turkey.
“Of course we welcome this visit. Such a step would be beneficial for Turkish-Israeli relations after such a long period,” he said.
Relations between Ankara and Israel have been strained since the Mavi Marmara case in 2010, when Israeli forces launched a deadly attack on a Turkish ship trying to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and transport humanitarian aid. the Palestinian enclave.
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