Foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany will sit down in Istanbul on Friday with counterparts from Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt. A Turkish foreign ministry source told AFP the talks will cover the conflicts in Palestine, Yemen and the Strait of Hormuz, and ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will host the first gathering in the R4+E3 format, arranged at Turkiye’s initiative. Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, is expected to attend. The source said the seven countries would look for cooperation and coordination that could be put into practice in the coming period.
In the chair, Fidan was expected to say that regional security requires countries of the region to take responsibility, and that Turkiye wants cooperation based on regional ownership. He was also expected to argue that existing disputes should not feed one another, that conflicts should not spread to new areas, and that regional tensions should not become wider instability. The source said he would press for more international pressure on Israel over settlement expansion and what it called encouragement of settler terrorism, underline support for Saudi Arabia’s security against Houthi attacks, and stress permanent freedom of navigation in the Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb straits.
Unrest in the Black Sea is another focus. The source said Fidan would point to Turkiye’s warnings and proposals meant to stop the Russia-Ukraine war from spreading there and to end civilian deaths. Armed attacks on commercial ships, often with drones, have multiplied in recent months, and Turkish ships have increasingly been in the firing line. Turkiye sent Russia and Ukraine a proposal last month to end the strikes, but the attacks have increased in recent weeks, notably near Romania and Bulgaria.
Nato said on Tuesday it was deploying additional planes, drones and radar systems to the Black Sea, calling for more situational awareness through extra sensors and more data-sharing.
The E3 was set up more than 20 years ago to coordinate diplomacy on Iran’s nuclear programme. The R4 was formed this year and brings together Egypt with the signatories of the Makkah Defence Agreement, a mutual defence pact set up by Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in August.