(Moscow) Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in the Kazakhstani capital Astana to attend a regional summit and meet with leaders, the Kremlin said Wednesday.
Mr Putin is due to attend the 24e meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which will be held on July 3-4 in Astana. On the sidelines of the regional summit, he is scheduled to hold talks with leaders participating in the summit.
The Russian president “will probably meet” his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Monday.
The last meeting of the two leaders took place in September 2023 in Sochi, Russia.
The head of Turkish diplomacy went to Russia in early June, where he attended a BRICS meeting and was received by Mr Putin, as well as his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Ankara, which has been careful to maintain relations with both Kyiv and Moscow since the start of the war in Ukraine, has repeatedly offered its good offices for a negotiated end to the conflict between the two countries.
The permanent members of the SCO are Kazakhstan, India, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and, since last year, Iran. Together, they represent half of the world’s population.
This year, Belarus is also expected to become a member, a decision announced at the 2023 SCO summit, hosted virtually by India.
Following the Astana summit, China will hold the rotating presidency of the SCO for the period 2024-2025.