Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu during the fifth session of the Russia-Turkey strategic planning group on Thursday, in the Turkish city of Antalya. During the meeting Lavrov said neither Russia nor Syria carried out the air strikes last week that killed four Turkish soldiers in Northern Syria.
Visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) shakes hands with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu during a joint news conference in Alanya, Turkey, on Dec. 1, 2016. Neither Syria nor Russia attacked Turkish soldiers in northern Syria on Nov. 24, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said here on Thursday. (Xinhua/Mert Macit)
The Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called his discussions with his Turkish counterpart “very useful”.
Both Foreign Ministers agreed that a ceasefire was needed across Syria and that and that humanitarian aid should be allowed into the besieged areas of the country.
Now while Lavrov and Cavusoglu presented a positive tone from these meetings, the two governments still hold very opposing positions on how to move forward on the situation in Syria.
The Russian FM Sergei Lavrov also said Russia would continue its operations in East Aleppo and will rescue it from “terrorists”.
His comments come as casualties continue to rise in the rebel stronghold as air strikes intensify in the area.
The two foreign ministers were also said to have spoken on the situations in Iraq, Yemen and Libya.
Now as far as bilateral relations, Turkey’s foreign minister called for a full lifting of visa requirements for Turkish Citizens in Russia and also asked that both countries be allowed their domestic identification cards for travel between Turkey and Russia.
Lavrov said that certain security measures still had to be dealt with before Russia can move forward on such a plan.
In regards to trade they both touched on lifting economic restrictions and both foreign ministers re-iterated their aim to reach 100 billion US dollars in bilateral trade by 2023.
The Turkish FM Cavu also mentioned that strategic projects with Russia were going along as planned and progressing positively, namely the first nuclear power plant that will be built in Turkey which Russia will be building at the costs of 20 billion dollars and of course the controversial Turk Stream Pipeline that will carry Russian gas through the Black Sea, Turkey and to Europe.
These talks come after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held three phone conversations over the last week regarding the latest situation in Syria.
