Erdogan hails Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul as 'significant achievement'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to hold a summit involving the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, as well as the United States, turning Istanbul into a "centre of peace."

Speaking after a cabinet meeting on Monday, Erdogan said his “greatest wish" is to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy together in Istanbul or Ankara.

"I would even like to bring [US President Donald] Trump along,” he underlined, as Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Istanbul for a second round of negotiations.

Erdogan announced that in the event of leaders coming together in Türkiye, he “will also meet with them at this meeting so that we can turn Istanbul into a centre of peace.”

He hailed Monday's talks as a “significant achievement” despite Sunday’s incident in Russia, which involved a massive overnight air attack by Ukraine using 162 drones, targeting more than 40 Russian military aircraft, including A-50, Tu-95, and Tu-22M3 heavy bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons.​​​​​​​

Developments in Syria

Talking about developments in Syria, he said: “As Syria achieves stability and peace, we believe that all its neighbours and all countries in the region will benefit from it”.

Erdogan appreciated the decision of European countries to lift sanctions on Syria.

The Turkish president also announced that, alongside Turkish company AJet’s operation of regular flights to Syria, Syrian Airlines will soon begin flights to Türkiye.