Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that Ankara hopes that a meeting will be held between Russian Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, on the sidelines of a diplomatic conference hosted by the city of Antalya (southwest of Turkey) in a few days.
Minister Çavuşoğlu added, in a press conference after his participation in an emergency NATO ministerial meeting in the Belgian capital, that the second Antalya Diplomatic Forum will be held between March 11 and 13, indicating the possibility of providing a platform on the sidelines of the forum. For peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow.
Russia has been waging a war against Ukraine since February 24, under the pretext of disarming its army and stopping security threats to Russia from its western neighbor.
The Turkish Foreign Minister stated that the Russian Foreign Minister would attend the Antalya Diplomatic Forum, but he did not clarify whether his Ukrainian counterpart would also participate, as the airspace of his country is witnessing battles between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
The Turkish minister stated that his country had planned to hold a meeting between Lavrov and Kuleba before the start of the war at dawn last Thursday.
In response to a press question about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, the Turkish minister said that Ukraine is witnessing an emergency, and that Turkey's missions in Ukraine "support those who suffer from a lack of food and drink."
NATO meetings
The Turkish Foreign Minister stressed that he held bilateral meetings today with a number of his counterparts in NATO member states, and the topic of the meetings was the situation in Ukraine, and added that during the meetings, Ankara highlighted its "firm and balanced policy and the efforts it made before the start of the war, which it is currently making to stop it." He said that Turkey is one of the rare countries that can establish dialogue with the two sides.
In a related context, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed today, Friday, with British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, the Russian attack on Ukraine and bilateral relations, and Erdogan stressed - during his phone call with Johnson - to continue making efforts to end the Russian attack on Ukraine immediately, and to declare a ceasefire Urgently.
During the Turkey-Kazakhstan Business Forum, which was held today, Friday in the capital of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan, the Turkish and Kazakh governments called for finding solutions through dialogue to the ongoing war between Moscow and Kiev, and Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said that his country and Kazakhstan can establish a dialogue with the Russian and Ukrainian sides, by virtue of The good relationship they have with Russia and Ukraine.
As part of international moves to stop the war, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman arrived Friday in Istanbul for talks in Turkey about the war, as part of a tour by the US official that also includes Spain, Morocco, Algeria and Egypt.