“We will meet with the Turkish minister of foreign affairs, we will hear what he has to say”, Lavrov said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart in Nicosia.
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“I won’t turn down Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s proposal to meet; there’s a lot to discuss with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and we’re ready to discuss them”, he said, APA reports.
“I met with the Turkish foreign minister at his urgent request, I didn’t hear anything new”, he said.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, issued the decree on sanctions on Saturday.
The incident was recorded as the first downing of a Russian jet by a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member country in over half a century. The new measures against Turkey announced at a meeting chaired by PM Dmitry Medvedev also include limits on Turkish construction firms’ ability to sign new contracts in Russian Federation and restrictions on road transport.
Moscow says its warplanes have been targeting terrorist groups near Syria’s border with Turkey, while Ankara says the Russian air strikes have been aimed at moderate militant groups comprising ethnic Turks who oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Turkey imports 95 percent of its energy from overseas and meets 55 percent – or 27 billion cubic meters (bcm) – of its natural gas consumption and 30 percent of its oil needs from Russian Federation.
“Everyone must respect the right of Turkey to protect its borders”, Erdogan said.
“We will not evade that contact, we will listen to what Mr. Cavusoglu will tell us”.
“It is clear that the relations between Russian Federation and Turkey can not develop in this situation on the basis of the “business as usual” principle”, he said.
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Industry minister Jan Mladek acknowledged the proposed Nord Stream-2 expansion could limit supply routes and energy security of European Union nations and hurt Ukraine but said the project should be viewed in wider context that could benefit the Czechs. The ban starts on 1 January.
