Turkish Foreign Minister: Initial agreement to hold a summit in Türkiye attended by Putin, Zelensky, Erdoğan, and Trump

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that Russia and Ukraine have agreed in principle to hold a leaders’ summit in Türkiye, attended by Putin, Zelensky, Erdoğan, and Trump, during uring an exclusive interview with the Turkish channel NTV.

Fidan said that the Russian and Ukrainian sides agree in principle to hold a leaders’ summit in Türkiye, hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and US President Donald Trump.

“If Russia and Ukraine continue with this intention, I believe that a temporary solution will emerge after a few rounds,” he added.

This war in the northern Black Sea has very serious repercussions, not only at the regional level but also at the global level.

Now, aside from the humanitarian tragedy – nearly a million people have been killed and wounded, and entire cities have been destroyed – we face a danger that could pave the way for greater war and division on the international stage. We have worked to prevent this from the beginning.

Regarding the recent Turkish-Russian-Ukrainian tripartite meeting held in Istanbul, Fidan said, “There is a humanitarian dimension here… We also implemented the third mechanism, which we call the humanitarian dimension, which includes the exchange of prisoners, the wounded, the corpses, the sick, and prisoners… This time they sought to achieve a larger number, and an agreement was reached, and a mechanism was put in place to achieve that”.

The two parties agreed to discuss the positions they declared to each other in the previous round of ceasefire negotiations.

The discussions focused specifically on “the manner and conditions for the leaders to meet”.

However, the core of their disagreement is that Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Putin have different conditions for a ceasefire, for attending the summit, and the negotiating teams have a role to play here.

“The two sides’ views were initially divergent, and now, as the pace of talks has slowed, I see a greater desire to meet halfway,” Fidan said.

He concluded, “If these negotiations continue systematically and with this intent, as we stated from the beginning, I truly believe that a temporary solution will emerge after a few rounds”.