Turkish foreign minister to visit Russia on Thursday

By : AFP

Date: 30 August 2023 12:20pm WAT

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with the media in Nairobi on May 29, 2023. (Photo by Handout / RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY / HANDOUT" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / Russian Foreign Ministry / handout" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS /

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a joint press conference with his Nicaraguan counterpart following their talks in Moscow on March 30, 2023. (Photo by MAXIM SHIPENKOV / POOL / AFP)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will host his Turkish counterpart for a two-day visit beginning Thursday, Moscow has announced, after Ankara’s top diplomat held talks with Ukrainian officials last week.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also due to visit Russia soon for talks with President Vladimir Putin on reviving a deal allowing safe grain shipments across the Black Sea.

Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, told reporters that Lavrov and Hakan Fidan would discuss “the situation in the region, particularly in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Transcaucasia”.

Erdogan has used his good relations with Moscow and Kyiv to try to bring the two sides into formal peace talks.

NATO member Turkey helped negotiate the only major agreement signed by the warring sides since the start of the conflict last year — a deal to ship grain from three Ukrainian ports across the Black Sea.
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