Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed his country’s readiness to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. The Turkish Presidency’s Communications Directorate said in a statement today that Erdogan discussed bilateral relations and regional and international issues in a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, during the phone call, Erdogan welcomed President Putin’s proposal to resume peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul from where they left off. Erdogan affirmed Turkey’s readiness to host negotiations that would lead to a permanent solution.

The Turkish President indicated that a window of opportunity has opened for achieving peace, and that a comprehensive ceasefire would create the necessary environment for peace talks. Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed on Saturday to resume direct talks with Ukraine without preconditions next Thursday in Istanbul.

Putin did not rule out reaching a binding agreement between Russia and Ukraine on a ceasefire during negotiations with Ukraine. It is noteworthy that Istanbul hosted several rounds of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in March 2022 to reach an agreement on ending the war.

An agreement was signed between the two countries, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations, to ship Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea in Istanbul in July 2022 to help address the global food crisis that has worsened since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The agreement was extended three times before Moscow suspended it on July 17, 2023.

It is worth noting that Russia has been waging a military offensive against its neighbor Ukraine since February 24, 2022, and has made ending the offensive conditional on Kyiv abandoning its membership in Western military entities. Kyiv considers this to be “interference” in its affairs.