Ljubljana - President Borut Pahor will take part in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey on Friday to appear at a panel debate alongside NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He is also due to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his office has announced.

Pahor will attend the official opening of the forum as the participants are addressed by Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu.

He will then speak at the main panel, themed Price of Peace or Cost of War, alongside Stoltenberg, Niger President Mohamed Bazoum and Zelenskyy, who will deliver his address by videolink.

According to his office, Pahor will discuss how diplomacy should help find a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine. He is also expected to link the crisis to the issue of peace and security in the Western Balkans and call for the EU's enlargement as key for the region's stability and prosperity.

Running from Friday to Sunday, the Antalya Diplomacy Forum is a high-level meeting of political leaders, diplomats, opinion makers and academics and a platform for exchange of ideas on ways to resolve international challenges. This year the debate will focus on the most topical international issues.

On the sidelines of the forum, Cavusoglu is to host on Thursday a meeting between his counterparts from Ukraine and Russia, Dmytro Kuleba and Sergey Lavrov, in what will be the first such high-level meeting between the two countries since Russia invaded Ukraine two weeks ago.