UPDATE - Turkish president meets with G20 leaders in Italy

UPDATES WITH DETAILS, CHANGES DECK

By Zafer Fatih Beyaz and Baris Seckin

ROME (AA) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday met with world leaders on the sidelines of the G20 Rome summit.

Erdogan met Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi at the La Nuvola Convention Center, which host the 2021 summit in Italy, the first in-person summit since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 35-minute closed-door meeting was also attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio, as well as Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Minister Lutfi Elvan, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, and Justice and Development (AK) Party spokesman Omer Celik.

An official statement by the office of the Italian prime minister described the Erdogan-Draghi meeting as "constructive."

"Constructive exchange of views on EU-Turkey relations, the Afghan crisis and stability in the Mediterranean, with particular attention to the developments in the intra-Libyan political process," it said.

The Turkish president also received Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The two officials held a 30-minute closed-door meeting.

Separately, Erdogan met with EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen for a 30-minute talk. The closed-door meeting was also attended by Cavusoglu.

"Good exchange with Recep Tayyip Erdogan. We took stock of ongoing work on a range of issues, from the pandemic to economic recovery, the situation in Afghanistan and beyond," von der Leyen said on Twitter.

Later, the Turkish president held a 30-minute closed-door meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo.

The meeting was also accompanied by Cavusoglu, Elvan, and Altun.

The 2021 G20 summit, which has convened the leaders of the world's 20 leading economies and representatives of international organizations, began in Rome on Saturday.

The two-day summit, hosted by the G20 term president Italy, was inaugurated by Italian Premier Draghi.

The group of the 20 largest and most advanced economies is to address the coronavirus pandemic, ways to foster a robust economic recovery and boost global cooperation on climate action.

Meetings are also expected to discuss the migrant crisis and other geopolitical issues.

*Writing and contributions by Merve Aydogan in Ankara