World leaders to meet Erdoğan in G-20 summit

Dozens of world leaders are set to meet Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the upcoming G-20 summit in the southwestern coastal city of Antalya.

The leaders of the world's 20 largest economies will gather in Turkey on Nov. 15 and 16.

At a side event of the G-20 Leaders' Summit, US president Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and other leaders of the G-20 member countries will meet with the Turkish President on Saturday.

Turkish presidency sources said some of the meetings will be in traditional way, as Erdoğan will chair almost all meeting as a leader of the host country.

The request for meetings came from the guest leaders and the Turkish President agreed to meet each one individually.

Some meetings will be face-to-face while some other meetings will be held in a traditional format.

“The president will be very busy during the meeting. So he will meet with some leaders before the summit or at dinner," the president's office said.

Erdoğan's meetings with US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would be most significant.

In the Erdoğan-Obama meeting, the two leaders are expected to focus on efforts to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the situation in Syria. With Vladimir Putin, the Turkish president will discuss the Syrian crisis and the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and a probable transition period for political solutions during his bilateral talks.

Creating a safe zone inside Syria will be another central topic of the side events during the summit.

Erdoğan is also expected to discuss the refugee crisis with the European leaders. In a recent interview with CNN International, he criticized Europe for shutting their doors to hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Leaders from the 19 member countries of G-20 group excluding Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, who will not join the summit due to an upcoming election in her country, confirmed to attend the program.

Top leaders of the European Union, United Nations, and African Union will join the program, while Azerbaijan and Malaysia were also invited by Turkey.