Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu informed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about his country’s ideas about easing the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, a source in the Turkish foreign ministry said after their telephone conversation.
"The agenda of the talks included developments in the tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Minister Cavusoglu informed Blinken about our initiatives on the reduction of tensions between Russia and Ukraine through dialogue," the source said.
According to the statement, the top diplomats also discussed the developments in northern Syria, with Çavuşoğlu emphasizing the need to counter the PKK terrorist group and its Syrian affiliate YPG's acts against civilians.
The officials also discussed the recent developments in the Caucasus, especially the ongoing normalization process with Armenia.
Turkish Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said earlier that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had invited Russian and Ukrainian Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky, in a bid to try to bridge the differences between the two countries. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, however, said earlier on Tuesday that Russia is not turning down the idea of a Putin-Zelensky meeting if it helps resolve the situation in eastern Ukraine. However, in his words, it is necessary to define the ultimate goal of such a meeting first.
