Türkiye Is Ready To Host Negotiations Between Russia and Ukraine, Erdogan Says
Turkiye’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin (R). Photo: X
May 11, 2025 Hour: 1:30 pm
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and said he welcomed the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul.
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During the talk, President Erdogan communicated to the Russian leader that his statement on peace talks between Russia and Ukraine would continue in Istanbul, from where they left, was welcome and that Turkey was ready to host negotiations leading to a permanent solution.
From the Türkiye’s Communications Directorate they announced that Erdogan said that a “window of opportunity to achieve peace has opened and that a general ceasefire will create the necessary atmosphere for peace talks,” said about Putin’s proposal to start direct talks with Ukraine on 15 May in Istanbul to find a peaceful solution to the conflict after more than three years of war.
To resume direct negotiations, I insist, without any preconditions. Start them without delay on next Thursday, May 15, in Istanbul, said the Russian head of government during an appearance at the Kremlin.
Shortly before, Erdogan had a telephone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in which he stressed that “it is important to continue cooperating in the delicate process of resumption of permanent peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, and reconstruction of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky reacted to the Russian proposal as a first step by the Kremlin to end the war, but insisted that there must be a ceasefire before Ukraine can sit down to negotiate.
In the telephone conversation, the leaders also expressed their “mutual interest in further expanding trade and investment ties, including launching joint strategic projects in the energy sector.”
Source: teleSURtv.net