‘A way to the negotiating table’: Erdogan calls for peace talks on visit to Ukraine

The leaders of Ukraine and Turkey, along with the chief of the United Nations, met today in an attempt to strengthen a corridor moving grain from eastern Europe to the rest of the world and to explore ways to resurrect efforts at ending Russia’s six-month war against its western neighbour.

The summit between Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky and UN secretary general Antonio Guterres in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lviv was being closely watched by the world.

“The visit of the president of Turkey to Ukraine is a powerful message of support from such a powerful country,” Mr Zelensky said in a statement, adding that he and Mr Erdogan had discussed the grain initiative as well as the armed conflict around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is Europe’s largest.

Turkey has been playing a key role in the conflict, hosting the highest-level peace talks so far between Russia and Ukraine and brokering a formula to get eastern European food exports out of the conflict zone.

At a press appearance, Mr Erdogan voiced sympathy for Ukrainians suffering violence and deprivation, and noted that Turkey had sent 100 shipments of aid and hosted 325,000 war refugees, including more than 1,000 orphans and their caretakers.

“The focal point of the trilateral meeting was finding a way to end the war,” Mr Erdogan said. “Personally, I have preserved my belief that the war will come to an end at the negotiating table. Essentially, Mr Zelensky and Mr Guterres have the same opinion. The aim is to identify the shortest and fairest route that brings us to the negotiating table.”

Mr Guterres hailed the grain corridor, already used to move 25 shipments of grain from Black Sea ports, as a possible building block for broader peace talks.

Moscow has carefully cultivated its ties with Turkey, which is emerging as a key economic hub for Russia amid harsh Western sanctions. Ukraine is a customer of Turkish weapons, and values Ankara’s role as interlocutor with Moscow. Mr Erdogan may be carrying messages for Mr Zelensky from the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

“Turkey has kept its relations with both countries,” says Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat who is a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment. “Is it a double agent? No, because ultimately the role Turkey plays is as a facilitator trying to bring an end to the war.”

During the day of meetings, Mr Zelensky met privately with Mr Erdogan, and both met with Mr Guterres. Publicly, Mr Zelensky praised Turkey. But Mr Ulgen suggests that, behind closed doors, Mr Zelensky is likely to have urged Mr Erdogan to downgrade Turkey’s economic engagement with Russia.

Mr Erdogan may well have sought to explore what conditions Ukraine would require for the resumption of peace talks between the two warring countries, which faltered following a summit on 30 March in Istanbul.

“Erdogan would want to know the conditions necessary for revival of the diplomatic negotiations,” says Mr Ulgen. “He wants to play an active role in that.”

Turkey has been harshly criticised in the West for welcoming Russian capital and expanding its business ties with Russia despite European sanctions. But Turkey has also expanded its business ties with Ukraine, including in the sensitive defence sector. Turkish defence minister Hulusi Akar met with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov on the sidelines of the presidential summit to discuss defence and security issues.

At the summit, Turkey signed an agreement to help Ukraine rebuild war damage estimated at more than $100bn.

More broadly, Russia’s war has initiated a dramatic and historic shift. Over the centuries, Ukraine has helped Russia seize control of the Black Sea from the Turks, who controlled the key Crimean peninsula until the late 18th century. A partnership now between Turkey and Ukraine will counter Russian influence over the Black Sea.

“Turkey’s policy is pro-Ukraine but not anti-Russia,” says Soner Cagaptay, a Turkey expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Turkey will do everything to make sure Ukraine is victorious, while keeping ties with Russia economically.”