President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday held extensive talks on the war in Ukraine at a meeting in Turkmenistan, officials said.
Erdoğan and Putin held a closed-door meeting on the sidelines of the International Peace and Trust Forum in Ashgabat, where they had “no lack of communication,” Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov told reporters after the meeting, which lasted about an hour-and-a-half.
Both leaders invited the other to his country, Peskov said, and assured Putin’s long-awaited visit to Türkiye, delayed multiple times this year alone, would take place when possible.
At their meeting, Erdoğan and Putin signaled steady relations between Moscow and Ankara, agreeing there were “no major problems” in their ties and that their cooperation continued “to develop very well in all areas” despite some outstanding issues.
According to Peskov, both leaders stressed that the “multifaceted and diversified” structure of Russia-Türkiye ties, particularly in trade and economic cooperation, helps the two countries withstand what he described as pressure from “third parties.”
The two leaders discussed European efforts to seize frozen Russian assets, Peskov said, adding that both viewed such moves as risking damage to the foundations of the international financial system.
The European Union looked set on Friday to indefinitely freeze some 210 billion euros ($246 billion) worth of Russian assets held in Europe. The Russian central bank on Friday slammed the move as “illegal.”
Following the meeting, Putin also briefly spoke with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
Türkiye is keen on hosting the Russian and Ukrainian sides again after earlier talks between the warring sides in Istanbul achieved results to an extent.
As the United States seeks to end an impasse on possible peace talks, Ankara proposed hosting another round of talks while Erdoğan was engaged in an intense diplomacy with the sides.
Erdoğan has repeatedly reiterated Türkiye’s commitment to finding a solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “We mobilized diplomacy for a fair and lasting peace between the sides. The whole world knows what we are doing to achieve it, and we will continue these efforts based on the principle that a fair peace has no losers,” Erdoğan has said.
