Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered Vladimir Putin Turkey to mediate an end to the war with Ukraine.
The two spoke at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Kazakhstan.
The SCO is an intergovernmental organization established by China and Russia in 2001 in Shanghai. It focuses on Eurasian political, economic, security and defense issues. The twenty-fourth meeting of the SCO takes place from 3 to 4 July.
Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed the idea, saying Erdogan could not serve as a mediator without giving specific reasons.
Although Turkey is a NATO member, Erdogan has sought to maintain positive relations with both Russia and Ukraine, previously securing a year-long deal for safe grain supplies from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
Erdogan has previously offered to host peace talks between Kiev and Moscow. The latest rounds of the failed 2022 peace talks were held in the Turkish city of Antalya. | BGNES
