ANKARA,
Turkey —
Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed his desire to host his
Russian and Ukrainian counterparts for a three-way summit in Turkey to ease
tensions in Ukraine in comments published Wednesday.
اضافة اعلان
Erdogan earlier this month visited Kyiv and
held talks with Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky, during which he offered
to host a peace summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He said Zelensky looked “favorably” on a three-way summit in an
interview with Turkish journalists on board his plane returning to Turkey from
a UAE visit.
“And if Mr Putin also looks on this
positively, we can, God willing, come together in Istanbul or
Ankara,” Erdogan
said, quoted by NTV broadcaster.
He also said he would “personally find out”
Putin’s view on a meeting in a phone call but did not say when they would
speak.
He previously said Putin had agreed to visit
Turkey but the Russian side never provided a date.
“It is not a good omen for war to really
start in this region. It will not be good for the health of the region,” said
Erdogan who has tried to maintain good relations with
Russia and Ukraine throughout the latest crisis.
Turkey has in the past two years also sought
to improve relations with regional rivals including Israel and Gulf countries
such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
There had been high hopes for a
Saudi visit
this month by Erdogan but instead he offered vague assurances that there was
dialogue between the two countries.
It appeared talks with Israel had been more
fruitful as Erdogan said Israeli President Isaac Herzog was planning to visit
Turkey in March.
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