Russia’s foreign minister has said 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.
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Lavrov confirmed this after he arrived in the Serbian capital on Wednesday evening.
The top diplomats of Turkey and Russian Federation were set to meet on Thursday for the first time since Ankara shot down one of Moscow’s warplanes, as dozens of foreign ministers gathered in Belgrade.
Russian Federation responded harshly, with Putin declaring Russian Federation had been “stabbed in the back by the accomplices of terrorists”, referring to Turkey’s alleged underhanded oil dealings with the Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Davutoglu said Turkey was doing all it can and is setting up “physical barriers” on that stretch of border. Russian Federation has reacted by deploying long range air defense missiles at its air base in Syria and slamming Turkey with numerous economical sanctions.
US President Barack Obama on Tuesday met Erdogan and called on both leaders to end their dispute and focus on fighting the common enemy Isis group.
“Do I think Turkey is an opportunity, absolutely I think Turkey is a great opportunity”, said Rob Bryngelson, chief executive of US gas shipping company Excelerate Energy.
“We are not buying anything now as we want to understand what will happen”, said one consultant for Turkey’s grain purchases in Russian Federation, who declined to be named.
On Wednesday the Russian minister said he was willing to meet Cavusoglu, who was “insisting” on holding talks on the sidelines of the council. But “there is no Turkish government complicity in some operation to buy illegal oil from ISIL”. Militants killed the Russian pilot after bailing out from the airplane as well as a Russian marine was also killed on a rescue mission to recover another aviator.
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Davutoglu told reporters that Turkey aimed to increase its energy cooperation with Azerbaijan but stressed these efforts were independent of the spat with Russian Federation.
