President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday said that he will "most probably" have a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this week.
The capital Ankara or Istanbul will serve as the "solution point" for the steps to be taken to ease tensions in eastern Ukraine, Erdoğan told reporters after offering Eid prayers in Istanbul.
Two months since the beginning of Moscow's war on Ukraine, Russian troops have intensified their attacks in the eastern part of the war-ravaged country.
Ankara, which has friendly ties with both sides, is actively involved in diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia. It hosted delegation-level talks in Istanbul last month and has repeatedly proposed holding a leaders’ summit between Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul on March 29 were seen as a breakthrough in the push to halt the hostilities that began on Feb. 24.
Earlier in March, Turkey also brought together the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in its southern resort city of Antalya, the first meeting of senior government officials from the two sides since the start of the war.
Turkish officials have also been engaging with their counterparts on the issue of humanitarian corridors in Ukraine to evacuate stranded civilians and wounded persons.
"We are taking all kinds of steps in the process of accelerating evacuations in Ukraine," Erdoğan said.
Turkey has so far facilitated the evacuation of dozens of civilians from the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
Noting that both the Ukrainian and the Russian sides want some level of support from Turkey in grain exports, the president said these issues will be discussed with Putin.
At least 2,899 civilians have been killed and 3,235 others injured in Ukraine since the war with Russia began, according to United Nations estimates. The true toll is feared to be much higher.
More than 5.4 million people have fled to other countries, with some 7.7 million people internally displaced, data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) shows.
Regarding Turkey's relations with Saudi Arabia, Erdoğan said that bilateral ties will reach a "very different position," adding that he discussed strengthening relations with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in their meeting the week prior.
"There have been very positive developments regarding the Gulf,” he said, adding that he believes Saudi visitors to Turkey will increase and accelerate.
In 2019, before the coronavirus devastated the tourism sector across the world, around 550,000 Saudi tourists visited Turkey, however, this figure dropped to nearly 80,000 in 2020. According to Turkish tourism industry insiders, if all goes well, this figure could reach 400,000 this year.
Stressing that Saudis’ understanding of tourism in Turkey is "very positive," Erdoğan said: "I believe that the tourism season will be very positive in Turkey.”
Turkey's Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy will continue to work in this regard, he added.
On his return flight from Saudi Arabia on Saturday, Erdoğan said that Ankara and Riyadh have demonstrated a common will to develop bilateral relations at the highest level.
