In Astana, Erdoğan offers help to end Russia-Ukraine war

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan told Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Wednesday (3 July) that Ankara could help end the Ukraine-Russia war, but Putin’s spokesman said Erdoğan could not play the role of an intermediary in the 28-month-old conflict.

Erdoğan, speaking to Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, said he believed a fair peace suiting both sides was possible, the Turkish presidency said.

But Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, ruled out any role as a go-between for the Turkish leader.

“No, it’s not possible,” said Peskov, when asked by a Russian television interviewer whether Erdoğan could assume such a role, according to the Russian Tass news agency. The news agency’s account did not explain why the Kremlin was opposed to Erdoğan’s participation.

The Turkish presidency said the two leaders also discussed the war in Gaza and ways to end the conflict in Syria.

Turkey is a member of NATO, the US-led Western military alliance.

Unlike other NATO leaders, who have imposed sanctions on Putin’s government, Erdoğan has tried to maintain good relations with both Russia and Ukraine throughout the conflict.

Turkey played a key role in putting in place a deal to ensure grain could be shipped safely from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. The accord remained in effect for a year.

Putin meets Xi

In Astana, Putin and China’s Xi Jinping hailed their Eurasian security club on Wednesday. The SCO promotes common approaches to external security threats such as drug trafficking and also focuses on countering any domestic instability.

Putin and the Chinese president have expanded SCO, a club founded in 2001 with Russia, China and Central Asian nations, to include India, Iran and Pakistan as a counterweight to the West.

“The organisation has firmly established itself as one of the key pillars of a fair, multipolar world order,” Putin said, adding that bilateral ties between Moscow and Beijing were at their best in history.

“Our cooperation is not aimed against anyone, we are not creating any blocs or alliances, we are just acting in the interests of our peoples,” Putin said.

In his opening remarks, Xi told Putin that China and Russia should “uphold the original aspiration of friendship for generations” in response to an “ever-changing international situation”.

Calling Putin an “old friend”, Xi alluded to the progress the two countries had made in putting in place “plans and arrangements for the next development of bilateral relations”.

The Kremlin said Putin had held a series of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the SCO summit.

Apart from Erdoğan, ahead of his meeting with Xi, Putin met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and the presidents of Azerbaijan and Mongolia, Ilham Aliyev and Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh.

India said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected in Moscow later this month, would not attend the Astana gathering, sending Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar instead.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)

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