ISTANBUL (National Times) – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday slammed Russia’s recognition of Ukraine’s breakaway regions as “unacceptable” in comments carried by the official Anadolu news agency.

“We consider the decision unacceptable,” said Erdogan, who is currently in Senegal.

“We invite the parties concerned to act with common sense and comply with the international law.”

Erdogan, who has friendly ties with both Russia and Ukraine, has sought to host the two countries’ leaders for a three-way summit in Turkey to ease tensions.

He visited Kyiv earlier this month for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky whom he said looked “favorably” to a Turkey-hosted summit.

And he was expecting a response from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“And if Mr Putin also looks on this positively, we can, God willing, come together in Istanbul or Ankara,” Erdogan said last week.

Despite political disagreements with Russia, Turkey has enjoyed burgeoning trade and defence ties with Moscow, with Ankara purchasing Russian S-400 missile system in defiance of criticism from the West.

In the meantime, Turkey, a member of NATO since 1952, has drawn Russia’s ire for selling drones to Ukraine in its conflict with pro-Moscow separatists.

Erdogan vocally opposed Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea because of the historical presence of ethnically-Turkic Tatars on the peninsula.