Ibrahim Kalin

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks last week in Astana, Kazakhstan.

They jointly announced the projected completion in six months of Turkey's Akkuyu nuclear power plant.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will hold a bilateral meeting in Astana to discuss the recent developments in the Russian-Ukrainian war amid Ankara's planned initiatives for ending the armed conflict.

The officials from Türkiye, Sweden and Finland have agreed to intensify technical works for the two Nordic states' accession to the alliance, said the Turkish presidency in a statement on Aug. 26.

Presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın has said Türkiye, NATO, Sweden and Finland will hold a quadruple leaders' meeting on June 28 ahead of the NATO Summit in Madrid.

Turkish presidential spokesperson and chief presidential foreign policy adviser İbrahim Kalın and U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke over the phone on June 23 and mainly discussed Sweden and Finland's NATO bid and Ukrainian grain export plans.

The negotiations on Finland's and Sweden's NATO membership bids will continue, and the forthcoming summit in Madrid is not an endpoint, Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın said on June 20.

Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal departed on June 19 for Brussels where they will have discussions over the documents being negotiated between the parties for Sweden's and Finland's applications for NATO membership.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO on May 18 with hopes that the process will be completed as soon as possible.

Representatives of Turkey, Germany, the U.S., Britain and France met in Berlin on June 14, where the upcoming NATO summit, Sweden and Finland's membership application to the alliance, food shipments and Aegean issues were at the center of discussions.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on May 30 it was essential to create a "safe zone" inside Syria near the Turkish border, his office said.

A senior Turkish official said after talks with Swedish and Finnish officials on May 25 that Turkey would not agree to the two Nordic countries joining NATO unless specific steps are taken to address Ankara's objections.