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Turkey's Foreign Minister Visits Moscow to Offer Ukraine Mediation and Press Black Sea Safety

Ankara is seeking to restart talks between Moscow and Kyiv, protect shipping routes and advance trade and energy ties before July's NATO leaders meeting.

Overview

  • Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan traveled to Moscow for talks on June 15–17 and held a public meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov while he was due to meet President Vladimir Putin.
  • Fidan repeated Turkey's offer to host renewed Russia–Ukraine negotiations and proposed a limited ceasefire focused on ports and energy infrastructure to make talks more result-oriented.
  • He raised Black Sea shipping safety and warned Russia to avoid steps that would harm Turkish interests after recent mutual accusations of drone attacks on tankers near Türkiye's northern coast.
  • The agenda also pushed bilateral economic and energy cooperation, including discussion of the Akkuyu nuclear plant and the Blue Stream and TurkStream pipelines, while the S-400 sanctions issue remains unresolved ahead of the NATO summit.
  • The visit increases diplomatic pressure ahead of the July 7–8 NATO leaders meeting by linking any progress on mediation to Ankara's push for a solution to U.S. CAATSA sanctions that legally require Türkiye to cease possession of the Russian S-400 systems.