ISTANBUL, July 8. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin could visit Turkey next month.
"We continue to hold talks with both Russia and Ukraine on prisoner exchanges. Mr. Putin will visit Turkey next month. We will again have an opportunity for a one-on-one discussion on this issue. I will also continue to have phone talks with him in the coming period," the Turkish president said following talks with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Istanbul.
Erdogan said that "the issue of prisoner exchanges is one of the priorities of the current agenda."
"We will discuss this issue on the phone [with Putin] as well. I hope we will achieve results soon," the Turkish president said.
The A-Haber television channel on Friday reported that Erdogan, following his talks with Zelensky, could hold a meeting with Putin. The meeting wouldn’t necessarily take place in Turkey, but the leaders would meet in person, the report said.
The presidents of Russia and Turkey regularly speak by phone. They last spoke on June 24.
Yury Ushakov, a foreign policy aide to the Russian president, told reporters on June 16 that preparations for Putin's visit to Turkey had not started as no date for the visit had been set yet. But Ushakov said Erdogan had extended an invitation for Putin to visit and the presidents had agreed that Putin would travel to Istanbul or Ankara for their next meeting. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that the presidents could meet in the future, but the date for the meeting had yet to be determined.