Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that his aim is to stop the bloodshed in Russia’s war against Ukraine as soon as possible.
He was addressing the sixth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in the Kazakhstan capital Astana. While Russian President Vladimir Putin is also attending the summit, Erdogan made the opening speech.
“Our goal is to continue the momentum gained despite the difficulties in the field and to stop the bloodshed as soon as possible,” the Turkish President said. “We are going through a period in which the balances in the world have changed and we face serious tests in many fields.”
Erdogan further claimed that the grain deal reached in July and the prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine in September, indicates that progress is possible.
Since the full-scale invasion, Turkey has maintained close contact with both Ukraine and Russia.
Turkey supplied Ukraine with armed drones during the early phase of the war. At the same time, Turkey, as a member of NATO, attempted to block Sweden and Finland’s NATO application.
Turkey has also avoided joining Western sanctions against Russia. Erdogan believes that “a just peace can be achieved through diplomacy, that there will be no winners in war and no losers in a just peace.”
