Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan hosted ambassadors of European Union member states in the capital Ankara on Tuesday.
The head of the EU Delegation to Türkiye, Ambassador Thomas Hans Ossowski, and Türkiye’s Deputy Foreign Minister and EU Affairs Director Mehmet Kemal Bozay were also present at the meeting.
No official details were given on the content of their discussions.
In December, Fidan stressed the need for the EU to reconsider its approach to Türkiye’s membership process, advocating a merit-based system and enhanced regional collaboration. He stressed the importance of Türkiye’s role in Europe’s geostrategic framework, urging closer ties to strengthen the region.
Last August, Fidan also took part in an informal EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
Türkiye, a strategic EU partner on climate, migration, security, and the economy, applied for membership in 1987 and began accession talks in 2005, though progress later stalled due to political hurdles erected by some member states.
Ankara’s European integration dates to 1959, including the 1963 Ankara Agreement and a Customs Union established in 1995.
Türkiye applied for EU membership in 1987 and has been a candidate country since 1999.
Türkiye has been a candidate for EU membership for more than two decades, but talks stalled in 2016 over what Ankara says is the bloc’s “insistence on politicizing the issue” and has been essentially frozen since last year.
The division of the island of Cyprus between its Greek and Turkish Cypriot populations, a source of friction between Greece and Türkiye, has also been made an impediment by the EU.