President Erdoğan to meet Russian leader Putin in Sochi on Aug. 5

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will hold a one-day visit to the Black Sea resort of Sochi to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on August 5, his office said

No further details were immediately available.

The two leaders held their first meeting since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the sidelines of a Syria summit in Tehran on July 19. Last week, a trilateral meeting was held between Erdoğan, Putin, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Iran’s capital Tehran. The leaders gathered for the 7th summit in the Astana format to discuss recent developments in Syria, the fight against terror groups which pose a threat to regional security, the humanitarian situation, and the voluntarily return of Syrians.

Erdoğan has tried to thrust Turkey — on good terms with both Moscow and Kyiv — into the center of diplomatic efforts to try and halt the five-month war.

On Friday, Turkey, the United Nations, Russia, and Ukraine also signed a landmark deal to resume grain exports through the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny after months of blockage due to the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its sixth month.

Under the deal, a joint coordination center was set up in Istanbul to carry out inspections at the entrances and exits of harbors, and to ensure the safety of the routes.

Addressing Russia’s weekend attack on the port of Odesa, Erdoğan said it “saddens” Turkey, adding that “a failure here would work against all of us.”