President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he spoke with 20 world leaders regarding the latest developments in Ukraine amid Russia's invasion.
Speaking at a meeting with local officials in the capital Ankara, Erdoğan said Turkey has been striving to find solutions to the ongoing war, which has devastated Ukraine and displaced over a million civilians.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Turkey has tried to play a mediating role between the two countries, both of whom Ankara has strong relations with.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced Monday that the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers Dmytro Kuleba and Sergey Lavrov would attend a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on Thursday. The meeting will mark the highest-level meeting between the two countries' officials since the beginning of the war.
Maintaining its neutral and balanced stance, Turkey continues its diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the Ukraine conflict, urging all sides to exercise restraint. While Ankara has opposed international sanctions designed to isolate Moscow, it also closed the Bosporus and Dardanelles under a 1936 pact, allowing it to prevent some Russian vessels from crossing the Turkish Straits.
Meanwhile, the president also said Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev will pay an official visit to Turkey on March 10, after Israeli President Isaac Herzog's visit.
