Putin says he will talk to Erdogan and decide on meeting with him
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he would hold a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during which they would decide on a bilateral meeting.
Source: Putin stated this at a press conference following the results of the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg; he was quoted by the Turkish publication Anadolu, European Pravda reports.
Quote: "We agreed that we would see each other. Yes, either he will come to us, or I will go to him; we will see. He invited me even before the [presidential and parliamentary] elections [in Türkiye], but then we decided that it is better not to do this so that no one speculates on this topic," Putin said.
He stated that his visit on the eve of the elections could be seen as "an attempt to influence the internal political process". "Neither he nor I need it. And we decided to postpone our meeting. But we never agreed where – either here or in Türkiye. We'll see," Putin said.
"We wanted to talk by phone, President Erdoğan offered to talk, but he offered a time that was not very convenient for me. I offered today, it is inconvenient for him; I offered tomorrow, he's not fine with it again. Well, we agreed on a conversation on Wednesday, I think. Let's talk and then decide," Putin said.
Background:
- Erdoğan said in July that the Russian President would visit Turkey in August for talks on, among other things, a full-scale war in Ukraine and a "grain agreement."
- After that, a number of events took place that could affect the arrangements for Putin's visit.
- In particular, Türkiye handed over the defenders of Azovstal to Ukraine, and Russia withdrew from the Grain Initiative, which operated with the participation of Türkiye.
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