Turkey’s Erdogan tells Trump he supports his Ukraine efforts

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told US counterpart Donald Trump in a call on Sunday that he supported his “direct and decisive” initiatives to end the three-year war in Ukraine, his office said.

Nato member Turkey has sought to maintain good relations with both of its Black Sea neighbours since the Russian invasion three years ago and has twice hosted direct talks aimed at ending the war.

In his phone call with Trump on Sunday, Erdogan said he “supported determined and decisive efforts by American President Trump to put an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine,” adding that Turkey supported “a just and durable peace since the start of the war and will continue to do so,” according to a statement from the Turkish presidency.

The US has proposed a ceasefire in the Ukraine war last week, with Kyiv accepting and Moscow raising “serious questions” over the proposition.

In the call, Erdogan also told Trump of the need to “finalise” a deal under which Turkey would buy US F-16 fighter planes and to work on Turkey participating in the development programme for F-35 warplanes, the statement said.

The US imposed a series of sanctions on Turkey’s defence industry in December 2020, after Nato member Ankara acquired the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system.