Turkey says it is necessary to reconcile Europe with Russia
Russia and Europe will need to rebuild constructive relations after the end of the conflict in Ukraine. This opinion was expressed by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in a comment to Turkish media on November 1 following the G20 ministerial meeting in the United States, his words are quoted by Anadolu Agency.
"Russia and Ukraine will have to come to a peace agreement. But beyond that, after peace is achieved, constructive relations between Europe and Russia will need to be redefined. Because the peace between Ukraine and Russia is not limited only to these two countries. Europe also needs to come to terms with Russia in a certain sense. It is necessary to restart certain relationships. This is important," Fidan stressed.
He also drew attention to the economic consequences of the confrontation. According to the minister, the conflict is causing significant damage to the global economy, and its consequences are increasingly affecting the political situation in European countries.
"No one is hiding it anymore. For a long time, everyone, especially European countries, tried to hide the economic and social cost of this. But now it has a very big impact on the political authorities in European capitals," Fidan said.
Among other factors affecting the global economy, he cited supply disruptions due to the situation around the Strait of Hormuz.
The Turkish minister recalled that previously economic relations between Russia and Europe were based, among other things, on the supply of Russian energy resources, which ensured the operation of European industry and contributed to the development of related industries.
"The European economy and industry received energy resources from Russia, on this basis they produced products, sold them, and other economic activities and financial transactions arose around these sales. All of this was closely interconnected," he said.
According to him, violations of international trade increase the overall economic damage. The minister referred to the German Chancellor's estimate that the energy outages had cost Europe €100 billion, and stressed that, taking into account related factors, the losses could be significantly higher.
"Now no one can fully calculate the cost of disruptions in trade, both in the energy sector and in other areas. If I'm not mistaken, two days ago the German Chancellor spoke about the costs of €100 billion for Europe in the energy sector alone. If we take into account all other related factors, we are talking about huge losses," he said.
Fidan also called for resolving the differences between the United States and Iran as soon as possible, which led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. According to him, the restoration of shipping is necessary for the resumption of the most important trade routes.
"All of this needs to be fixed as soon as possible so that these critically important trade routes can reopen," the minister concluded.
On October 31, Finnish President Alexander Stubb listed the reasons why his recent telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin was a turning point. So, he noted that for him the conversation was an opportunity to understand how the Russian leadership assesses the current situation in the war zone.
On October 27, the Kremlin reported that Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stere, in a conversation with Putin, discussed the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, taking into account recent contacts with representatives of the United States and Ukraine. The interlocutors welcomed the agreement to resume trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November.
The Russian President, in turn, called the initiative of the leaders of Norway and Finland correct after the call. According to him, Russia supports any steps to restore relations with Europe, both with the European Union as a whole and with individual countries.
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