“We had set a goal of reaching a 100-billion-dollar trade turnover, and we are striving vigorously to achieve it”, Erdogan said.
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Putin thanked Erdoğan for visiting Russian Federation despite “a very hard situation regarding the failed coup attempt”.
On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country.
An expert claims that the visit of Erdogan to Saint Petersburg will send strong message to the West meaning as “Ankara has options”. If a traditionally friendly country such as Ukraine has distanced itself from Russian Federation, the risk is that Turkey might now draw close, if only to raise the stakes in negotiations with the European Union and US.
The Turkish president seemed more sanguine about the restoration of friendly relations with Russian Federation to their pre-November levels, notwithstanding differences between the two nations on several fronts, notably over Syria, Ukraine, Armenia and Cyprus.
Less than two weeks after Putin and Erdogan’s dialogue resumed, Turkey suffered an attempted military coup.
Erdogan told Russian media that he wants to “immediately take steps” towards getting the TurkStream project started again and to finish the Akkuyu power plant.
Nonetheless, Erdogan told reporters that “Russia is a main, key and very important player in establishing peace in Syria”, adding, “the problem needs to be solved with help of joint steps between Russian Federation and Turkey”.
The dispute has strained U.S. The Obama administration has strongly denied that.
Mr Putin was one of the first foreign leaders to phone the Turkish leader to offer support after the overthrow bid and has not joined the criticism expressed by Western powers of the ensuing clampdown. He didn’t touch on Ankara’s demand for Gulen’s extradition.
The visit comes as Turkey’s ties with the West have cooled over criticism of a crackdown on alleged coup-plotters. Ankara also lashed out at the EU for failing to uphold its end of an EU-Turkey agreement on migration.
Visa-free travel to Russian Federation was canceled for Turks, and Turkish workers were asked to leave, their visas revoked.
“We have suffered certain losses after the European partners cancelled the project”, the Russian president said after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “The intentions alone is not enough”.
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Putin responded in kind, saying that “higher interests of our peoples, our nations require the restoration of our ties”.
