From the Liveblog of
Thursday, July 6, 2023
Ukraine’s Zelensky to meet Erdogan on Friday in Istanbul
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Turkey on Friday for the first time since Russia’s invasion for talks with counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Turkish presidency says the two leaders could stage a joint press conference after the talks in Istanbul.
The meeting is due to focus on an expiring deal to ship Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea as well as next week’s NATO summit.
But analysts expect Zelensky to push Erdogan to give a green light for Sweden’s membership in NATO ahead of the July 11-12 alliance summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. Turkey is blocking Sweden’s candidacy because of a longstanding dispute about Stockholm’s perceived lax attitude toward alleged Kurdish militants living in the Nordic country.
Both Zelensky and Erdogan want to extend a United Nations and Turkey-brokered deal with Russia under which Ukraine has been allowed to ship grain to global markets during the war.
The Times of Israel Community.