Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on the sidelines of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Foreign Ministers session in Belgrade on December 3, a source in the Russian delegation said Thursday.
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Russia’s foreign minister said yesterday that he would agree to meet with his Turkish counterpart this week to hear Turkey’s explanations on the downing of a Russian air force jet.
“We gave our response to the claims that have been raised”, Cavusoglu said after the talks.
“We never said oil smuggling from ISIL is not a problem”, he said, using an alternative acronym for IS.
“Those who do not like economic embargos imposed on them, should not place an embargo on others”, Davutoglu said.
It follows heightened tensions between the two countries after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in late November.
On Wednesday, Turkey’s Petroleum Pipeline Corporation and Qatar’s national oil company signed a memorandum of understanding for long-term LNG trade, which was being interpreted by analysts as a counter measure to end dependence on Russian gas imports.
In his remarks, Davutoglu said that Turkey and Azerbaijan will accelerate implementation of the TANAP project construction. “Let me say it. George Haswani, holder of a Russian passport and a Syrian national, is one of the biggest merchants in this business”, Erdogan said.
Davutoglu again insisted Turkey did not know the nationality of the plane when it brought it down inside Turkish air space.
“For us, the Turkish borders are sacred”. The shoot-down, the first time a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation country has downed a Russian plane in more than half a century, triggered a bitter falling out between the two nations, which had developed robust economic ties.
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A year ago, almost to the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin was announcing, during a visit to Ankara, that the South Stream gas pipeline would be re-directed, making landfall in Turkey rather than Bulgaria, and not-so-subtly threatening the European Union that it would be at Ankara’s mercy when it came to gas supplies. “Actually, Russia does not believe this either”, said Erdogan, referring to the alleged oil trade with IS group.
