“We are the country that has made the most important efforts to end the war” between Russia and Ukraine “through negotiations on the basis of international law”. These are the words of the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the press conference at the end of the meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Istanbul.
“Ukraine deserves NATO membership,” added the Turkish president. “I am pleased to host Mr. Zelensky and his delegation in Istanbul. My dear friend and I had our last face-to-face meeting in August last year. We had many phone calls afterwards. The Ukrainian people are defending the territorial integrity of your country. We have done our best to prevent war. From the day the tension turned into a conflict, we have put on record that we reject this unjust war.”
“While we stand in solidarity with Ukraine, we will continue our efforts to end the conflict. We have listened to the Ukrainian side on the prisoner exchange. We are also negotiating with the Russian side. I also discussed this issue with Putin. Next month, Putin “He will visit Turkey. In the meantime, we will talk about this issue in the phone calls. Prisoner exchanges are among our priorities. I hope we will get results soon.”
Meanwhile, Erdogan explains, “we continue our work on the issue of the grain corridor. We are working to extend the period beyond July 17. Our hope is that the extension will not be just 2 months but at least every 3 months. We will try to increase the period to 2 years. This is our most important agenda with Putin”.
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