Monitoring Desk
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron urged Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday to fight Russian evasion through Turkiye of Western sanctions imposed on the Ukraine war.
Macron “underlined the concern of fighting any dodging of the sanctions in place,” the French President’s office said after his telephonic conversation with Erdogan on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
French President calls for isolation of Russia
He added that “isolation of and pressure on Russia needed to be increased” to force Moscow to end the Ukraine war, the presidency said.
Erdogan has maintained ties with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by refusing to join in imposing sanctions on Russia and ramping up bilateral trade relations during the war.
The Turkish President has used his good relations with both Kyiv and Moscow to try and mediate an end to the conflict.
Turkiye hosted two early peace talks and helped strike an UN-backed agreement restoring Ukraine’s grain deliveries across the Black Sea.
The Turkish leader has also repeatedly tried to bring Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Ankara for ceasefire talks.
Erdogan’s office said the Turkish President called for a “just peace” in Ukraine in a Friday phone call with Vladimir Putin.
