Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen discussed Türkiye-EU relations and rising Middle East tensions during a phone call on Tuesday.
The two leaders also discussed mounting regional tensions, as instability across the Middle East continues to threaten shipping, energy routes and global supply chains.
According to Turkish officials, Erdogan told von der Leyen that Ankara was working to preserve a fragile ceasefire between Iran and the U.S.
He also said that the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy chokepoint, should be reopened as quickly as possible.
Accounting for roughly one-fifth of the global oil supply, the strait has remained a flashpoint for tensions since Israel and the U.S. launched a surprise attack on Iran in late February.
During Tuesday’s call, Erdogan also said that persistent regional tensions had once again demonstrated the strategic importance of Türkiye-EU relations.
Von der Leyen, for her part, agreed, noting that both sides wanted to keep shipping routes open to ensure energy flows and maintain global supply chains.
In subsequent remarks, von der Leyen described the exchange as “highly productive”, calling Türkiye “a key partner in a turbulent region”.
Located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, Türkiye occupies a critical transit position, particularly for gas pipelines and overland cargo routes.
Tuesday’s phone call also touched on the sensitive issue of Cyprus.
Brussels has recently signalled its readiness to support U.N.-led efforts aimed at reviving long-stalled talks between Athens and Ankara regarding the divided island.
In his conversation with von der Leyen, Erdogan also urged Brussels to broaden the scope of the Türkiye-EU Customs Union, which is currently limited to industrial goods and processed agricultural products.
Ankara has long called for the resumption of talks aimed at updating the terms of the customs union, although concrete steps in this regard have yet to be taken.
Peace is Armenia’s only reliable guarantee of security, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said in comments in Dublin, where he also...
Hungarian authorities have recovered nearly $20 million in cash hidden in buildings and buried in forests as part of a bribery investigation into M...
U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to hold a historic trilateral meeting in She...
European leaders gathered in Dublin on Thursday, 12 November, for the ninth European Political Community (EPC) summit, with security, defence and energy high on the agenda. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held talks focused on peace, trade and regional cooperation.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts has backed withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and overhauling the country’s defence doctrine, calling both steps essential to national security and deterrence.
President Vladimir Putin agreed on Thursday to let European representatives join the next round of Ukraine peace talks while the United States continues to work towards what could become the largest prisoner exchange of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Microsoft struggled to restore its services on Friday after a major outage disrupted Outlook, Teams and Copilot across the United States and Asia-Pacific region.
Here's your AnewZ Technology Daily Brief for the 13th of November. This week, a Microsoft outage hit Australian agencies, Google restricted mapping data in South Korea, a lawsuit targeted advanced AI development, and Nvidia faced a leadership crisis after Jensen Huang's resignation.
Hungarian authorities have recovered nearly $20 million in cash hidden in buildings and buried in forests as part of a bribery investigation into Miklós Seszták, a former minister under ex-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to hold a historic trilateral meeting in Shenzhen on 19 November. The White House says the talks will focus on nuclear arms reductions, with Iran also on the agenda.
U.S. negotiators floated the idea of Ukraine withdrawing from the eastern Donbas region in exchange for NATO membership, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
China is taking its space technology ambitions beyond its borders, with a major deal to build a network of 20 artificial intelligence-powered satellites for Oman.
Europe will send a team of diplomats to Ukraine peace talks rather than a single envoy, EU leaders agreed on Friday at the end of a summit in Dublin.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment