President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday met Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit the three men were attending in Kazakhstan’s Astana. The meetings were closed to press and officials did not comment on the topics the leaders discussed at the meeting in the hotel where Erdoğan was staying.

Türkiye and Mongolia established diplomatic relations in 1969 and they gained new momentum with the opening of reciprocal embassies in Ankara, Türkiye and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in 1996-1997. Over 100 bilateral agreements have been signed so far to strengthen the legal basis of bilateral cooperation.

In 2011, Mongolia honored Türkiye with "third neighbor" status, along with the U.S., EU, Japan, South Korea and India.

Türkiye also enjoys strong relations with Qatar, particularly since the 2017 blockade of the Gulf country by Saudi Arabia and others. The two countries have strengthened military and economic ties in recent years.

The Turkish Presidency’s Directorate of Communications said Erdoğan and the Qatari emir discussed bilateral ties, Israel’s attacks on Palestine, the Israeli threat against Lebanon and other regional and international issues. Erdoğan highlighted the danger of spillover of Israel’s aggression into the wider region and urged the international community, the Islamic world in particular, to take swift steps to stop Israel. Erdoğan also emphasized the significance of increasing efforts to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ensuring a steady flow of aid to the region, the statement by the directorate said.

The directorate also said Erdoğan discussed bilateral ties, and regional and global issues in talks with the Mongolian president and underlined the importance of strengthening relations between the two countries, which have deep-rooted cultural and historical ties.

Erdoğan arrived in Kazakhstan on Wednesday for the summit, and the main plenary session will be held on Thursday. After a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he held a trilateral meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

The summit, which is being attended by heads of state and government from 16 countries, will focus on regional security and cooperation in fields from energy and health to education, transportation and economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation.

The nine-member SCO, which encompasses a vast area from Moscow to Beijing, includes around half the world's population.

Its permanent members are this year's hosts: Kazakhstan, India, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Iran.