Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the Foreign Minister of Turkey, announced earlier today (March 7) that a tripartite meeting with Ukraine and Russia will take place at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum this Thursday.
“We will hold this meeting in a tripartite format in Antalya on Thursday, March 10,” said Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on his Twitter account.
Expressing hope that the meeting “will be a turning point” and “important step” towards peace and stability, the Foreign Minister said that Ankara will “continue to make efforts for a lasting peace.”
Çavuşoğlu underlined that Turkey has been engaged in intense diplomatic efforts to bring the Ukrainian and Russian parties together since the beginning of war between the two neighbors on February 24.
He said that since the war began, Turkey’s President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “held a total of 19 phone calls with his counterparts. And I held about 40 calls.”
“During this period, I spoke with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba six times and with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov four times, not including our communication via message,” he added further, as reported by the state-run AA.
Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu announced the attendance of both Kuleba and Lavrov to the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on Thursday, as he said both parties asked him to be present during the meeting.
On Twitter, Turkey’s Foreign Minister said that “upon President Erdoğan’s initiatives and our intensive diplomatic efforts, Foreign Ministers Lavrov of Russia and Kuleba of Ukraine have decided to meet with my participation on the margins of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.”
“Hope this step will lead to peace and stability,” he added.