NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday thanked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his contribution to finding a political solution for the Russia-Ukraine crisis and his personal efforts.
In a message he posted on Twitter, Stoltenberg said they discussed Russia's buildup in and around Ukraine.
"I thanked him for his active support and personal engagement to find a political solution, and welcomed Turkey's strong practical support to Ukraine," he said.
Stoltenberg continued by noting that the bloc remains ready to find a solution through dialogue.
A latter statement released by Ankara also underlined the phone call between the two leaders.
According to the statement, Erdoğan and Stoltenberg discussed regional developments, particularly the tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Underlining that Turkey has been spending efforts for an end to the crisis, Erdoğan said that Ankara has been acting based on a logic of calming the existing tensions.
Expressing that he shared his opinion with all his counterparts that the crisis will be ended by peaceful and diplomatic means within the framework of the Minsk Agreements on the basis of Ukraine's territorial integrity and international law, Erdoğan added that he shared with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on several occasions that Turkey would gladly host a summit at the leadership level or talks at the technical level.
If Turkey is assigned a mediator role following the meeting with Putin, Ankara will accept the offer to help in the Ukrainian crisis in this capacity and will try to do its part, Erdoğan said Friday.
Speaking to reporters on his way back from Ukraine where he met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, Erdoğan said that the Western countries were unable to contribute to the solution to the Ukraine-Russia tensions and there are no European leaders fit to resolve it.
Ukraine and Russia have been locked in conflict since hostilities in the eastern Donbass region broke out in 2014 after Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula.
Erdoğan’s visit to Turkey’s fellow Black Sea nation came after visits to Kyiv by leaders of NATO members Britain, Poland and the Netherlands amid the standoff. Turkey has good ties with Kyiv and Moscow but has said it would do what is necessary as a NATO member if Russia invades.
Russia has denied plans to invade Ukraine amid concern by many Western nations over its buildup of more than 100,000 troops near the border, but has demanded sweeping security guarantees from the West and says it could take unspecified military measures if its demands are not met.
Ankara has previously offered to help defuse the standoff and Turkish diplomatic sources have said both Russia and Ukraine were open to the idea. Turkey has opposed the sanctions threatened by other NATO members in response to a military incursion by Russia.
Turkey shares the Black Sea with Ukraine and Russia. Erdoğan has said the conflict would be unacceptable in the region and warned Russia that an invasion would be unwise.
While forging cooperation on defense and energy, Turkey has opposed Moscow’s policies in Syria and Libya, as well as its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. It has also sold sophisticated drones to Ukraine, angering Russia.
