Despite high expectations, Putin and Erdogan did not discuss a possible cessation of hostilities in Ukraine in Astana
At the fourth meeting between Russia’s and Turkey’s presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan since the war in Ukraine began on February 24, the two leaders did not discuss a way to end the conflict on Thursday, despite the massive expectations and hopes that the meeting had sparked since Erdogan himself announced it as the main topic to be discussed in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
On the occasion of another important event at regional level, the so-called Conference on Interaction and Confidence Measures in Asia, numerous heads of state and government gathered in Astana yesterday. Putin went and took the opportunity to organize several bilateral contacts. One of them, the most important, was with Erdogan, who had assured those attending the summit just a few minutes earlier that “our main goal (…) is to stop the bloodshed as soon as possible” in Ukraine. . In his opinion “a just peace can be achieved through diplomacy (…) there will be no winners in war or losers if the peace achieved is just.”
But after the Putin-Erdogan meeting ended, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov quickly announced that the two presidents had not discussed the issue of a possible ceasefire in Ukraine. In his words, “they haven’t talked about a possible ceasefire, they haven’t talked about finding a way out of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.”
Days ago, however, Peskov stated that the Russian and Turkish presidents had a meeting on the agenda “on the situation in Ukraine, bilateral relations and, in general, an exchange of views on current issues”. Even Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov admitted on Monday that Putin and Erdogan could talk about Turkey’s new mediation initiative to bring about peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
The last time Putin and Erdogan spoke about the situation in Ukraine was on October 7 by telephone. The Turkish leader expressed his willingness to “do everything possible to achieve a peaceful solution to Ukraine’s problem” and expressed a desire to meet with his Russian counterpart “within three or four days”. Days earlier, on October 4, Ukraine’s president, Volodímir Zelensky, signed a document refusing to negotiate with Russia while Putin continues to lead the country.
Yesterday, Putin preferred to talk to his Turkish colleague about energy, about gas pipelines to supply Europe. “We could explore the possibility of creating a gas center on Turkish territory for supplies to other countries,” he suggested. Given the leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the Kremlin chief praised that Turkey “is currently the safest route to supply gas. We could regulate prices without any regulation intervening,” he added.
Coincidentally, the Turk Stream gas pipeline is operational. It transports gas from Russia through the bottom of the Black Sea and runs through the Balkans to Hungary. In fact, it is currently the only pipeline that brings Russian gas to Europe. But Turkey also passes the gas pipeline with gas from Azerbaijan, the TANAP, towards the Old Continent. The route between Greece and Bulgaria was inaugurated on 1 October. The beneficiaries must also be Romania, Serbia, Macedonia and Italy. Two competing gas flows thus run through Turkey, the Russian one and the one from the Caspian Sea.
Putin and Erdogan met on July 19 in Tehran (Iran), early August in Sochi (Russia), mid-September in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) and yesterday in Astana (Kazakhstan). Four times in three months. Except with Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, the Kremlin’s supreme leader has not met another international leader that often this year.
Source: La Verdad
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