Erdoğan holds key meetings in China, invites Putin to Türkiye
TIANJIN
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, and invited Putin to visit Türkiye soon.
Erdoğan, attending the 25th SCO Heads of State Council Summit, held the meeting at a hotel as part of his ongoing bilateral engagements in China.
Erdoğan emphasized the strong ties between the two nations.
"We are expecting you in our country at the earliest opportunity," he said to Putin.
"We have a sincere relationship based on trust between us. Our relations are progressing without being affected by conjunctural challenges," Erdoğan said.
He also highlighted progress in economic cooperation.
"Technical talks are proceeding positively to develop alternative solutions that will not harm the integration of our financial institutions with international markets," Erdoğan added.
Putin, for his part, pointed to shared interests in key regions.
"We are also focusing on common areas of interest such as the Middle East, North Africa, and Transcaucasia," he said.
"Russian-Turkish cooperation in all these areas is deep-rooted, concrete, beneficial, and, I can say, reliable."
Putin also praised Türkiye's mediation attempts around the Ukraine war.
"I'm confident that Turkey's special role in these matters will continue to be in demand," the Russian president said.
Putin added that the three rounds of direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul have made some progress on the humanitarian track.
The two presidents exchanged views on Israel's attacks on Gaza and the development of Syria while preserving its political unity.
Erdoğan met with Aliyev, Pashinyan
Erdoğan also met with, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan seperately on the sidelines of the SCO Summit.
Earlier on Monday, Erdoğan discussed peace efforts in South Caucasus with Pashinyan, according to the Turkish Communications Directorate.
The meeting addressed Türkiye-Armenia relations in light of steps toward permanent stability and peace in the South Caucasus, the directorate said on Turkish social media platform NSosyal.
Erdoğan expressed satisfaction with progress in the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process and said Türkiye supports peace, stability and development in the region while continuing to contribute to the process.
He noted that Ankara evaluates steps to increase cooperation between Türkiye and Armenia.
Erdoğan also met with Aliyev on Monday and expressed satisfaction with the progress in the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process.
The leaders discussed bilateral relations along with regional and global issues, according to a statement by the Turkish Communications Directorate.
Erdoğan expressed satisfaction with the progress in the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process and said that Türkiye would continue contributing to the process.
He emphasized the importance of Türkiye and Azerbaijan coordinating their regional development initiatives in the coming period.
He said the two countries would continue taking steps to develop cooperation in many areas, particularly energy and transportation.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov also participated in the meeting.
Erdoğan arrived in China on Sunday and held bilateral meetings with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that day.
The 25th summit of the SCO opened Monday with President Xi delivering the opening address.
The SCO evolved from the "Shanghai Five" mechanism comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan before Uzbekistan joined as the sixth member. Today, it includes 10 member states, two observers and 14 dialogue partners across Asia, Europe and Africa.
The organization covers approximately 24 percent of global land area and 42 percent of the world’s population, with member states accounting for roughly one-quarter of global GDP and trade increasing nearly 100-fold in two decades.
