Erdogan meets Meloni, Netanyahu on UNGA sidelines

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has held talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York during his visit to the 78th session of the UN General Assembly [UNGA].

The closed-door meeting on Tuesday with Meloni, which lasted 40 minutes, took place at the Turkish House in New York.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun and Chief Advisor to the President Ambassador Akif Cagatay Kilic were also present.

President Erdogan delivered his address at the UN earlier on Tuesday, touching on many issues including conflicts in Ukraine and Karabakh.

Irregular refugees

Erdogan and Meloni discussed a wide range of topics, including irregular refugees.

"This is a topic that the two countries have worked together closely on," TRT World’s Melinda Nucifora reporting from New York said.

Nucifora referenced a recent irregular migration conference in Rome, where the two countries – along with other Mediterranean countries – came together to work on solutions for the root source of the crisis.

According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, top diplomats of both sides held talks and discussed illegal migration, with the Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressing the importance of regional cooperation to tackle the issue, which he called a common challenge faced by Mediterranean countries.

Relations between the two countries have strengthened in recent years, with bilateral ties reaching new record levels in the last couple of years.

Erdogan-Netanyahu talks

During their meeting, Erdogan and Netanyahu discussed a range of issues including ties and the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

Both sides discussed international and regional issues, political and economic relations between the two countries as well as the latest developments regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict, Fahrettin Altun, Turkish communications director, said on X, formerly Twitter.

Erdogan said Türkiye can collaborate with Israel in the fields of energy, technology, innovation, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and that they should strive together for a world where peace prevails.

Besides Fidan, Altun, Kilic, and Bayraktar, governing AK Party spokesperson Omer Celik and Director of the National Intelligence Agency Ibrahim Kalin were also present at the meeting.