WORLD
Turkish President: Our hope is that moderation and common sense will prevail and the weapons will fall silent as soon as possible
Baku, March 12, AZERTAC
Turkey on Friday underlined the importance of diplomacy for peace and development as the Antalya Diplomacy Forum brought together participants from 75 countries, including 17 state heads.
Addressing the forum during the opening ceremony, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the first high-level contact between Russia and Ukraine that took place on Thursday shows the Antalya Diplomacy Forum has started to achieve its purpose.
“Our hope is that moderation and common sense will prevail and the weapons will fall silent as soon as possible," he said of the war.
On Thursday, the much-anticipated trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine and Turkey with facilitation from Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu concluded in Turkey's resort town of Antalya.
Following two weeks of war, the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine on Thursday held their first face-to-face talks, which Ukraine's Dmytro Kuleba said made "no progress" on achieving a cease-fire to the fighting that has caused 2.2 million refugees to flee across Ukraine's borders. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow wanted to continue negotiations with Kyiv.
Erdoğan reiterated his call to reform the United Nations Security Council and said: "It is a must to establish a global security structure that prioritizes peace over status quo, interests of the whole world instead of the interests of five countries. As Turkey, we will resume efforts to reform the U.N."