But those efforts have been complicated by a diplomatic spat between Turkey and Russia over the downing of a Russian warplane. It seems that Obama is trying his best to really calm the tensions between the nations, but also made it very clear that it will take everyone banding together to fight off ISIS.
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Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov, asked if there would be any changes to Turkish Stream as a result of the dispute with Ankara, declined to comment.
Turkey insists the Russian plane violated its airspace despite numerous warnings it issued to the Russian pilots and has said it won’t apologize for the downing, which killed a Russian pilot.
“We have every reason to think that the decision to shoot down our plane was dictated by the desire to protect the oil supply lines to Turkish territory, right to the ports where it is loaded onto tankers”, Putin said during a news conference on the fringes of the climate talks in Paris. A slogan in Turkish and Russian on the poster reads as ‘Killer Putin!’
Aiming to head off a rift between the two major Mideast players, Obama urged both to “de-escalate” their conflict and not get distracted from the campaign against IS.
Mr Obama said he and Mr Putin disagree on the fate of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
“It is not possible to cover up the violation of the Turkish airspace with unfounded accusations against Turkey”, Davutoglu said. “Let’s see the documents”, Erdogan said.
“We have recently received additional reports that confirm that oil from ISIL-controlled territories is delivered to the territory of Turkey on an industrial scale”, he said, according to TASS news agency.
Obama then said though that Russian Federation has been sitting the opposition targets in Syria, and some of these Syrian opposition targets are being supported by the United States.
After his meeting with Erdoğan, Obama said there has been some progress in sealing the border between Turkey and Syria but that there are still some “gaps” exploited by ISIL to bring in foreign fighters and sell oil.
Erdogan also said Russian President Vladimir Putin had in the past spoken of the Turkish president’s “courage”.
For his part, Stoltenberg said: “The focus now should be on how we can de-escalate and calm tensions (and find) mechanisms so that we can avoid the type of incident we saw last week”.
Putin refused an offer for a meeting by President Erdogan on the sidelines of the Paris climate talks that kicked off Monday.
The ministry also announced that almost 50 Russian universities were suspending their cooperation agreements with Turkish counterparts. Moscow may also suspend work on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project, two sources in Russian gas giant Gazprom said.
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Moscow says Turkey shot down its SU24 warplane inside Syria on 24.
