President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had a phone conversation with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the regional developments on Thursday prior to the UN Humanitarian Summit which will be held on May 23-24 in Istanbul.

According to presidential sources, Ban thanked Erdoğan for hosting the summit in Turkey and told him that the organization will convey a strong message to the world about the cooperation on humanitarian matters.Erdoğan for his part said that Turkey is proud of organizing such events, a first of its kind, and that it will be a great opportunity for world leaders to discuss global and regional developments.The two leaders also discussed the Syrian crisis and the Cyprus dispute, agreeing that the world needs to build a better cooperation on Syria's political transition and the refugee crisis.Ban also told Erdoğan that the UN is hopeful that the two sides in Cyprus will find a common solution while assuring the president that he is following the situation in the island closely.The May 23-24 gathering will be the first global humanitarian summit for the UN since the world body was founded.More than 6,000 attendees, at least 125 UN member states and 50 heads of states or governments, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Kuwaiti Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte.The summit will produce a chair summary and a report by the Secretary-General will be submitted to the General Assembly for intergovernmental discussion.