Turkish President Erdoğan tours Samarkand with SCO leaders

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited the newly built areas of Samarkand with the leaders of the countries participating in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit on Thursday. Erdoğan talked with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi, Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, Tajik counterpart Imamali Rahman, Belarusian counterpart Aleksandr Lukashenko and other leaders in the newly built areas of Samarkand called Eternal City. Before the city tour, Erdoğan attended a sapling-planting ceremony. On Friday, Erdoğan will attend as a special guest the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO, with Türkiye taking part at the presidential level for the first time since Ankara obtained SCO dialogue partner status in 2012. Established in 2001, the eight-member organization aims to strengthen friendly, good neighborly relations and mutual trust among member states. Erdoğan is expected to address the second session of the summit and hold bilateral meetings with leaders such as Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The landmark grain export deal signed this July by the UN, Türkiye, Russia, and Ukraine will be discussed during the talks between Erdoğan and Putin. Erdoğan has said Türkiye wants grain shipments from Russia to also resume, like Ukraine's exports under the deal.