President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday at the G20 leaders summit said that Türkiye continues its intense diplomacy for peace in the Ukraine-Russia war as well as the grain initiative.
G20 sidelines
The president also met several leaders on the sidelines of the meeting. On Sunday, Erdoğan came together with European Council President Charles Michel, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
The meeting with Sissi is the first between the two leaders since ties were frayed for several years.
“Türkiye-Egypt relations, increasing the trade volume, new cooperation in the field of energy and regional as well as global issues were discussed at the meeting,” the Turkish Presidency said in a written statement.
Erdoğan pointed out that the two countries entered a new period by appointing mutual ambassadors and said that ties would reach the level they deserved in a short period.
Emphasizing that the Egyptian administration’s support to Turkish investors and companies is important, Erdoğan underlined that they attach importance to reviving cooperation in liquefied natural gas (LNG), nuclear energy, culture and education.
Although Cairo is not a member of the G-20, term president India had invited the leaders of Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Egypt, Mauritius, Oman, Singapore, Spain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to attend the summit.
This July, Türkiye and Egypt raised their diplomatic ties and appointed ambassadors.
Normalization between the two accelerated after el-Sissi and Erdoğan shook hands in Doha at the World Cup in 2022 and began to take off following the deadly February earthquakes in Türkiye and Erdoğan’s reelection in May.
Diplomatic relations between Türkiye and Egypt have been maintained at the level of charge d’affaires on both sides since Egypt’s 2013 military coup, which overthrew the late President Mohammed Morsi.
A day earlier, Erdoğan held also bilateral meetings with Emirati, South Korean, Brazilian and German leaders, as well as the leaders of MIKTA (Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Türkiye and Australia).
At the MIKTA meeting, Erdoğan reiterated that it is unacceptable to carry out attacks on the holy books under the pretext of freedom of speech.
“We believe that everyone respecting humankind, from whichever faith they may come from, must protest this,” he added, saying that Türkiye would continue to voice its objections on the issue.
The president’s words came after an unidentified man desecrated the Holy Quran in front of the Turkish House (Türkevi), which houses Türkiye’s diplomatic mission in New York City on Friday.
Grain efforts
On the other side, the G-20 leaders, on the first day of talks in New Delhi on Saturday, praised the efforts of Türkiye and the United Nations in bringing Ukrainian and Russian grain to the world market to hinder a global food crisis.
In the G-20 declaration, the leaders called for the full, timely and effective implementation of the grain deal to ensure prompt and unhindered delivery of grain, food products and fertilizers from Russia and Ukraine.”
“This is necessary to meet the demand in developing and least developed countries, particularly those in Africa,” it said.
The consensus was a breakthrough as the Group of 20 is divided over the war in Ukraine, with the West said to be pushing for condemnation in the declaration.
Türkiye’s efforts were also discussed during the several meetings President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held with world leaders on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in the Indian capital, New Delhi.
Türkiye was a key player in the now-on-hold deal that allowed for the safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments via the Black Sea despite the blockade of its ports after Moscow launched its invasion in late February 2022.
The accord, brokered by Ankara and the United Nations in July 2022, ended last month after Moscow refused to renew it. Ankara has ramped up efforts to try to revive the initiative.
Türkiye has positioned itself as an intermediary in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Erdoğan was a key player in brokering the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
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