The Erdogan-Putin summit and Turkey’s balancing act between US and Russia

On Wednesday Turkish President Erdogan traveled to Sochi, Russia, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for nearly three hours. While there was no official readout from either side detailing what was discussed, reports indicate that a number of key issues were on the table, including tensions in Syria, energy, and weapons deals.

The meeting came after Erdogan’s visit to New York for the UN General Assembly summit, where he did not conceal his dissatisfaction with President Biden or the state of US-Turkish relations, even suggesting that Turkey would buy more Russian S-400s. Nicholas Danforth joins our host Thanos Davelis to analyze the latest summit between Erdogan and Putin, and look at the balancing act Turkey is trying to play between the US and Russia. 

Nicholas Danforth is a Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, ELIAMEP, and the author of the newly published “The Remaking of Republican Turkey: Memory and Modernity.”