2023-07-08 02:46:43
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said today in Ankara that Ukraine “deserves to enter NATO” and called for “immediately returning to the negotiating table” to end the war unleashed by the Russian invasion of that country. .
“On the 500th day of the Ukrainian people’s war in defense of the territorial integrity and independence of his countrywe work for peace,” Erdogan told a news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelensky, in Istanbul.
“Without a doubt, Ukraine deserves to enter NATO,” said the Turkish president, just four days before the summit that the Atlantic Alliance will hold in Vilnius (Lithuania).
Erdogan recalled that his government tries to mediate so that “a diplomatic solution” to the war conflict is achieved, he promised to “continue working” with that objective and spoke in this context of “a just peace”, in which “there are no losers”.
“I want to immediately go back to the negotiating table,” he said.
In addition, he promised that Turkey will help the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war: “Our successful construction campaign there will be the best,” he said.
For his part, Zelensky thanked Erdogan for his support for his country’s aspiration to join NATO.
“I was glad to hear that the President has said that Ukraine deserves to become a member of NATO“said the head of the Ukrainian state.
Zelenski arrived in Turkey late this afternoon from Slovakia, as part of a tour of NATO partner countries to seek support for the Alliance summit to be held on July 11 and 12 in Vilnius, in which Kiev aspires to receive an invitation to join the military pact when the war is over.
The Ukrainian president explained that in the long meeting he had with Erdogan they talked “about the security of the Black Sea region and European security“.
Other topics discussed were “the Russian invasion of Crimea” (in 2014), the grain corridor, “the Defense industry, the production of drones”.
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