Erdoğan: We want to bring peace between Ukraine, Russia at table, end war

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emphasized on Wednesday that it is important to "bring peace to the table between Ukraine and Russia as soon as possible."

"We want to bring peace to the table between Ukraine and Russia as soon as possible and end the war with this peace at the table."

Speaking at joint press conference with his Hungarian counterpart Katalin Novak, Erdoğan also said that Türkiye expects Hungary to maintain support for advancing positive agenda in Türkiye-EU ties.

Hailing the longstanding ties between the two countries, Erdoğan said the "helping hand" Hungary extended Türkiye after twin devastating earthquakes in February was the "solid example" of these strong relations.

The 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes struck 11 Turkish provinces — Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa, claiming more than 50,000 lives.

Over 13.5 million people in Türkiye have been affected by the quakes, as well as many others in northern Syria.

"We discussed various aspects of Türkiye-Hungary relations at the meetings we held today," he added."Türkiye and Azerbaijan are ready to provide support on delivery of natural gas to Hungary via Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline," Erdoğan added.

Trade, military, economic, and cultural relations, were also on the agenda in the meeting between the two leaders, during which they watched footage from the earthquake, Erdoğan noted.

They also affirmed their common will to further strengthen ties based on an enhanced strategic partnership, Erdogan said, adding that the two countries agreed to hold a sixth meeting of their High Level Strategic Cooperation Council in the Hungarian capital Budapest in December.

"We will celebrate 2024 as the year of Common Culture," said Erdoğan, stressing that economic and commercial relations between Türkiye and Hungary were getting stronger.

"Our trade volume reached $3.5 billion last year. We discussed steps to be taken with the aim of achieving our joint goal of $6 billion," Erdoğan said.

Erdoğan also said that he and Novak emphasized the importance of developing cooperation between the two NATO allies in the defense industry.

Novak remarks

Hungarian president Novak, for her part, hailed Türkiye's role on Black Sea grain deal, calling for immediate cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.

"Türkiye is indispensable for Hungary's energy security and we need Turkish Stream," said Hungarian President Novak referring to the gas pipeline.

Novak also recalled Türkiye's role in combatting illegal migration, said the country is "key" in preventing it.

On NATO, Novak said her country favored enlargement of the alliance and called for steps to be taken in this direction.

Pointing to the Hungarian parliament's recent approval of Finland's bid to join NATO, Novak said: "A positive decision has been made in Hungary regarding Finland joining (the alliance), and the issue of Swedish accession is on the agenda and discussions are ongoing in the Hungarian parliament."

Abandoning decades of military non-alignment, Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO last May.

But Türkiye, a longstanding NATO member, asked the two Nordic countries to take concrete action against terrorist groups like the PKK and the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

In June, Finland and Sweden signed a memorandum with Türkiye to address Ankara's security concerns, and senior diplomats and officials from the three countries have held various meetings since then to discuss the implementation of the trilateral agreement.

Sweden passed an anti-terror law last November, hoping that Ankara would approve Stockholm's bid to join NATO. The new law, which will go into force on June 1, will allow Swedish authorities to prosecute individuals who support terrorist organizations.

Türkiye said earlier this month that it would approve the process of Finland's NATO membership protocol in parliament.