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Erdogan invites EU leaders to Istanbul or Syrian border towns to discuss future of NATO

23 October 2019 18:01 (UTC +04:00)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday invited the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom to meet on the Turkish side of the Syrian border or in Istanbul to discuss outlooks for NATO.

"I received a call from Boris Johnson two days ago who suggested that the four of us… meet in London. I told him that Istanbul or the border cities of Sanliurfa and Gaziantep were better options", Erdogan was quoted by the Haberturk television channel as saying to a press pool aboard his plane.

The Turkish president said that the next opportunity to meet would be on the sidelines of the NATO summit in London from 3-4 December. The gathering will mark 70 years since the North Atlantic Organisation was created.