Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday asked the European Union to resume his country's accession negotiations, on the eve of a European summit in Brussels to discuss developments in the war on Ukraine.
"We expect the European Union to quickly open the chapters of accession negotiations and start the customs union negotiations without being drawn into narrow calculations," Erdogan said at the conclusion of a meeting he held in Ankara with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
The Turkish president's comments come as the war in Ukraine allows Ankara to play a strong role in the international arena due to its mediation efforts.
The negotiations - launched in 2005 regarding the possibility of Turkey joining the European Union - have faltered in recent years, due to sometimes severe tension with Brussels over several files.
At the end of 2020, the European Commission deemed Ankara's chances of membership "on hold" due to decisions that contradict the interests of the European Union, taken by its leaders.
"Turkey continued to move away from the European Union, with a serious decline in the areas of rule of law and fundamental rights," the commission said in a strongly worded report.
European Union heads of state and government meet in Brussels on Wednesday for a two-day summit devoted to addressing the consequences of Russia's war on Ukraine.
An extraordinary NATO summit is also scheduled to be held in Brussels on Thursday, and the Turkish Presidency Communication Department said in a statement that the summit will discuss the steps and decisions that will be taken to determine the shape of the future of the alliance, while NATO is heading to hold the Madrid summit next June. .
Within 9 days, the Turkish president received 4 leaders from the European Union and NATO.
Turkey (a member of NATO) has been trying since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine to facilitate mediation between Moscow and Kiev, but it refused to join Western sanctions against Russia.