The meeting between Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Tuesday sealed a new peace between the countries after months of hostility, reciprocal accusations and a sustained information war by Moscow, with the two leaders now ready to look to the future.
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He insisted it would take “painstaking work” and “some time” to return to previous trade levels as Russian Federation rolls back punishing economic sanctions against Ankara, but both sides said they wanted to restart major energy projects hit by the crisis.
Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in Ankara it was normal for Turkey to seek “other options” on defence cooperation as it had not received the expected support from its western friends and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies following the failed coup.
Mr Putin said Russian Federation would lift economic sanctions from Turkey and seek a “common approach” with Ankara to a Syrian conflict on which their positions have clashed.
“We’ve had a comprehensive and constructive (talks), I would like to emphasize, we discussed a broad range of issues including bilateral relations and global issues”, Putin told a press conference after his meeting with Erdogan.
“Erdogan has contrasted what Putin did in the aftermath of the attempted coup with the absence of similar moves from Western leaders”, Al Jazeera reported.
Relations between Turkey and Russian Federation – two powers vying for influence in the strategic Black Sea region and Middle East – have always been complicated. He also said it was too early to say whether political transition in Syria was now possible. President Erdogan travels to Russia to meet with President Putin for the first time since apologising in late June for the downing of a Russian fighter jet along the Syrian border in November a year ago.
The Turkish leader also called for the TurkStream gas pipeline, a joint project with Russian Federation, to be “done as soon as possible”.
“If the West one day loses Turkey – whatever our relations with Russian Federation and China – it will be its own fault”.
“Visa issues should be addressed, because one way or another they relate to economic cooperation”, Putin said.
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Russian Federation is waging a bombing campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad while Turkey is fiercely opposed to the Syrian leader.
