The meeting between Russia’s Sergei Lavrov and Turkey’s Mevlut Cavusoglu, on the sidelines of the ministerial council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, was also confirmed by a diplomatic source in Belgrade.
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The meeting would mark the two countries’ first high-level face-to-face talks since the downing of the Russian plane on November 24 along Turkey’s border with Syria, which has badly strained relations between Ankara and Moscow.
“We will not be evading this contact”, Lavrov said.
Turkey, along with its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies such as the United States and Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states, backs Syrian rebel groups battling the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.
Moscow deployed long-range air defense missile systems to its base in Syria and slammed an array of economic sanctions on Turkey, including a ban on imports of fruit and vegetables and the sales of tour packages.
“During the Cold War era there was a Soviet propaganda machine”.
Davutoglu said Turkey was doing all it can and is setting up “physical barriers” on that stretch of border.
“No one will give credit to the lies of the Soviet propaganda machine”, he added.
Davutoglu also renewed an accusation that Russian operations in Syria were hampering efforts to clear Turkey’s border of IS militants.
Ties between Ankara and Moscow soured after a Russian bomber SU-24 was shot down by a Turkish F-16 along the Syrian-Turkish border, allegedly for violating Turkish airspace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin snubbed an offer from Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the climate summit in Paris early this week.
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Putin said that Russian Federation will take other retaliatory moves against Turkey, but will not engage in saber rattling.
