Putin meets with the leaders of Turkey and Qatar to discuss the war in Ukraine and energy crisis
A meeting for the sake of good relations. With Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Another, with a view to lowering tensions. With the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. This week, the Kazakh capital of Astana has not only hosted the sixth summit at the highest level of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA); it has become the scene of some of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most important negotiating efforts in recent days.
In a bilateral meeting on the margins of CICA, the Kremlin leader first met with his Turkish counterpart. This was the fourth meeting between the two leaders so far this year, following summits in the Iranian capital of Tehran in July, in the Russian resort of Sochi in August and in the Uzbek city of Samarkand in September. And in the framework of close and frequent telephone communication, through which President Erdogan is working to become one of the main mediators in the conflict between Kiev and Moscow.
President @RTErdogan, who is in Astana for the Sixth Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), met with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. pic.twitter.com/VceraKN3DL
— Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye (@trpresidency) October 13, 2022
Ankara is trying to maintain a complicated international balance in which, without imposing economic sanctions against Russia and trying to preserve positive relations with the Kremlin (and, more personally, with President Putin), it has expressed its diplomatic support for Ukraine. This formula - which, according to the Russian president's aide, has been "quite successful" - has allowed the Ottoman territory to play a key role in negotiations such as the export of Ukrainian grain, or the exchange of more than 250 prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine.
However, the issues addressed by the Turkish and Russian leaders have been a source of controversy in recent hours. While Erdogan claimed that one of his main diplomatic goals was to "maintain the momentum achieved despite the difficulties on the ground and achieve a ceasefire as soon as possible", and while the Turkish daily Milliyet reported that Ankara is ready to organise talks with Russia, the US, France, Germany and the UK, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the leaders did not discuss these issues.
"The issue of the Russian-Ukrainian settlement was not discussed," Peskov said, adding that the proposal for negotiations between Moscow and the West was left out of the dialogue.
Second, Vladimir Putin met with Qatari emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, in the first face-to-face meeting since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2019, to try to defuse diplomatic tensions that have arisen between Russia and Qatar after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Doha "needs cordial relations with Russia and the other countries in the region" to play a mediating role, a source close to the talks told Reuters news agency.
Relations between the small Gulf peninsula and the Eurasian giant - two giants of gas production - have been marked by recent Qatari criticism of Russia's annexation of several Ukrainian territories, as well as by the attendance of Qatari representatives at one of NATO's meetings earlier this year. Thus, after the Arab emir urged 'finding a peaceful and immediate solution to the crisis in Ukraine while respecting the sovereignty of states', according to an official statement from Tamim bin Hamad's office, the two leaders discussed global food security, the situations in Libya and Syria, and the status of the Iran nuclear deal.
The meeting between Putin and Erdogan came just a day after the Russian president proposed the creation of a gas hub on Turkish territory. The country "is currently the most reliable route for supplies to Europe", through the TurkStream pipeline - which transports Russian gas supplies to Turkey and other countries in southern and southeastern Europe, the Kremlin leader said.
"Yesterday [...] we agreed to study the creation of a gas hub in Turkey for sale to third countries. Mainly European", Vladimir Putin announced during his meeting with his Turkish counterpart. "A platform that will serve not only to supply gas, but also to determine the exorbitant prices". According to Kremlin sources, Ankara is "quite interested" in this.
After the loss of Nord Stream I and II - due to gas leaks and the German blockade respectively - in the Baltic, Putin's new gas export targets appear to be the Black Sea via TurkStream. This pipeline, which has a capacity of 31.5 billion cubic metres per year, would allow Moscow to supply southeast European countries such as Greece, Serbia, Romania and Hungary, while the EU continues its efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian hydrocarbons.
"The world is becoming truly multipolar," Putin said during his speech at the 6th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) on Thursday. "And very important, if not key, is the role of Asia, where new centres of strength are being strengthened".
The transformation of the body, hitherto constituted as an inter-governmental forum for cooperation, peace and stability in Asia, into a new international organisation has shown. An Asian equivalent of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Asya'da İş Birliği ve Güven Artırıcı Önlemler Konferansı 6. Zirvesihttps://t.co/LWthuI8ckB
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) October 13, 2022
"The Astana Declaration for the transformation of CICA [into an international organisation] has been adopted," Kazakh President Kasim-Yomart Tokayev announced on the sidelines of a summit that adds Kuwait to the list of 27 member states, joining Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
