Turkey's Erdogan praises 'meaningful' deal with Australia on hosting COP31 summit

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan attends a plenary session on the opening day of the G20 Leaders' Summit at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, November 22, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/Pool

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan praised a deal reached with Australia on Saturday to host next year's U.N. climate summit, calling the compromise a meaningful achievement for multilateralism.

Resolving a lengthy standoff, the two countries agreed that Turkey will host the COP31 summit in 2026 while Australia leads the negotiation process. Ankara and Canberra both bid in 2022 to host the conference and had since refused to stand down.