The State Department said Tuesday it does not view the restoration of Turkish-Russian relations as “a zero-sum game” as leaders of Turkey and Russia determined to boost ties after about nine months, Anadolu Agency reports.
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The Turkish president also revealed that Turkey and Russian Federation had agreed on establishing a joint investment fund and boosting cooperation in the defense sector.
Putin said he and Erdogan would have a separate discussion on Syria later Tuesday involving top diplomats and intelligence officials.
Turkey hosts American troops and warplanes at its Incirlik Air Base, an important staging area for the US -led fight against Islamic State militants in neighbouring Iraq and Syria. The meeting would be followed by talks by higher level officials, he said, adding that the two countries had a mutual understanding on a number of issues.
Intriguingly, Turkish officials have said the pilots of the Turkish planes that shot down the Russian jet on November 24 have been detained over the failed coup, raising the prospect that Ankara could link the downing to the same conspiracy.
He said both governments agreed on introducing a cease-fire, providing humanitarian aid and finding a political solution.
Al Jazeera said that “one of the interesting things about the whole spat between Russian Federation and Turkey is how much of it seemed to be driven by the personalities of the two leaders; not actually to do with any of the interests the two countries shared”. “We may have a different outlook on how the cease-fire should be implemented”. “We particularly do not want attacks that hurt civilians”.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Bild daily that he was not anxious about Russian Federation and Turkey improving ties. We don’t believe it is appropriate that the moderate opposition is attacked. “We don’t find the Aleppo siege to be appropriate”.
Turkey has repeatedly pressed Washington to extradite the 75-year-old cleric to face trial over the attempted putsch, which saw a rogue military faction try to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“I do not believe that relations between the two countries will become so close that Russian Federation can offer Turkey an alternative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation security partnership”, he said. The Obama administration has strongly denied that.
Turkish officials have also fumed at expressions of concern from European officials over Turkey’s sweeping crackdown on the Gulen movement, and accused the West of failing to show support for a democratically elected government.
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Turkish and Russian foreign ministers met in the Russian city of Sochi on July 1 and Putin was one of the first to give his support to Turkey following the July 15 coup attempt. Ankara also lashed out at the EU for failing to uphold its end of an EU-Turkey agreement on migration. “What we are going to see is a longer-lasting but more pragmatic type of relationship built not on a personal friendship or ideology but on common material interests”, said Alexander Baunov, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Centre.
