The First High-level talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomatic forum on Thursday.
According to Turkish minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, the talks will be held in a trilateral format in that turkey is a mediator.
As we know Turkey has also invoked clauses of the Montreux Convention, that put turkey in charge of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, to ban the passage of warships through the Bosphorus strait.
Moscow has said it is ready for talks with Ukraine, but that all of its demands, including that Kyiv takes a neutral position and drops aspirations of joining the NATO alliance, must be met to end its assault.
“I will say frankly that my expectations of the talks are low, we are interested in a ceasefire, liberating our territories and the third point is to resolve all humanitarian issues.”
As kuleba said.
Russian Foreign minister Lavrov said that a discussion on ceasefire was not even on the table at his meeting in Turkey with his Ukrainian counterpart, as a result, talks failed to stop the war.
Turkey, a member of NATO, had offered to act as a mediator between the parties as it shares a maritime border with Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea. While opposing sanctions on Moscow, Ankara, which has cordial relations with both Moscow and Kyiv, has branded the Russian invasion intolerable.
Cavusoglu claimed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed Turkey’s invitation to host the summit during a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, which Lavrov later accepted.
“We especially hope that this meeting is a turning point and … an important step towards peace and stability,” he said, according to the news agency Reuters, adding both ministers had asked for him to join the meeting.
