Erdoğan, Draghi meet in Ankara, discuss ties

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi met in Ankara for the third intergovernmental summit. The summit was organized 10 years after the second intergovernmental meeting held in Rome.

Turkish and Italian leaders met to hold their third intergovernmental summit and to sign new agreements to boost bilateral cooperation.

Erdoğan greeted Draghi officially at the presidential compound before comprehensive talks started.

The issue of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its impacts on political, security and economic environment in Europe and Türkiye’s efforts to create a secure corridor for Ukraine to export its grain to world markets were expected to be raised during the meeting.

The two leaders were also expected to exchange views on the Türkiye-EU relations and regional and global matters as well as on the bilateral relations between Türkiye and Italy, strategic partners at NATO. 

The bilateral trade between the two countries hit around $23 billion.