Türkiye has announced a tripartite meeting with Ukraine and Russia to be held at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum later this week.
“We will hold this meeting in a tripartite format in Antalya on Thursday, March 10,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday.
Expressing hope that the meeting “will be a turning point” and “important step” towards peace and stability, the Turkish foreign minister said Ankara would “continue to make efforts for a lasting peace.”
Cavusoglu announced the attendance of both Dmytro Kuleba and Sergey Lavrov to the three-day forum, as he said both parties asked him to be present during the meeting.
Intense diplomatic efforts
Cavusoglu underlined that Türkiye has been engaged in intense diplomatic efforts to bring the Ukrainian and Russian parties together since the beginning of war.
He said that since the war began, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “held a total of 19 phone calls with his counterparts. And I held about 40 (phone) calls.”
Cavusolgu said he spoke to Kuleba six times and with Lavrov four times, not including his communication with them via messages.
The minister commented further on his country’s evacuation efforts from Ukraine, saying that at least 12,000 Turkish nationals have been evacuated from Ukraine, so far.
Türkiye is “one of the few countries which are keeping their missions open” in Ukraine, he said, adding the country’s embassy in Kiev and consulate in Odessa were both still functional.
