The two leaders’ meeting in St. Petersburg was in the wake of Turkey’s ties with the western bloc having strained.
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Vladimir Putin has meanwhile expressed support for Erdogan over the failed coup attempt while Erdogan in turn declared support for all of Russia’s claims within eastern Ukraine and Crimea.
Turkey and Russian Federation have agreed to build a mechanism on Syria which includes officials from the intelligence services, foreign ministries and armed forces, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said here on Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting in Baku on June 13, 2015.
Russia’s Kommersant newspaper wrote that the meeting between Erdogan and Putin had ended the crisis and removed tensions on bilateral relations.
Prior to his visit to Russia, President Erdogan called President Putin his friend and noted that he wanted to open a new page in relations with Moscow.
Erdogan also initiated a friendly talk saying that Turkey was entering a “very different period” in relations with Russian Federation, and that solidarity between the two countries would help the resolution of regional problems.
Economic loss is another main dynamic in Turkish-Russian rapproachment.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Bild daily that he was not anxious about Russian Federation and Turkey improving ties.
“Tourist charter flights to Turkey stopped, Russian visitor numbers fell by 87 percent”. “Both sides are determined to take relations forward”.
According to Putin the two discussed the expansion of economic ties between the two countries.
It will be the first time the two strongmen leaders have met since Turkish interceptors blasted a Russian warplane out of the skies over Syria in November. In 2013, Rosatom won a US$20 billion contract to build four reactors in what was to become Turkey’s first nuclear plant, but construction was halted after the downing of the jet.
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“We worked very hard to have good relations with Europe for 15 years”. The Turkish president gave few details despite the fact that his country is a key member of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and therefore that transparency should be the order of the day.
