Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks Thursday with fellow leaders attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Yeni Safak reports.

Erdogan visited newly built areas of the city together with other summit participants.

He spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi, Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon, Belarusian counterpart Aleksandr Lukashenko and other leaders in the Eternal City.

Before the city tour, Erdogan attended a sapling planting ceremony.

On Friday, Erdogan will attend the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO as a special guest, with Türkiye taking part at the presidential level for the first time since Ankara obtained SCO dialogue partner status in 2012.

Established in 2001, the eight-member organization aims to strengthen friendly, good neighborly relations and mutual trust among member states.

Erdogan is expected to address the second session of the summit and hold bilateral meetings with leaders including Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

The landmark grain export deal signed this July by the UN, Türkiye, Russia and Ukraine will be discussed during the talks between Erdogan and Putin.

Erdogan has said that Türkiye wants grain shipments from Russia to also resume like Ukraine’s exports under the deal.