Ankara–Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to arrive in Istanbul on Monday to attend the 23rd World Energy Congress.
The Syrian crisis will be at the top of Putin’s agenda during his meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The officials will also discuss the means to promote bilateral relations.
Well-informed Turkish sources said that bilateral agreements will be signed in the field of energy and gas, including an agreement over Turkey’s “Stream Project”, through which natural gas will be transferred from Russia into Europe. The officials will also sign an agreement over the creation of a nuclear power plant to generate electricity in Turkey.
In a statement issued on its website, the office of the Turkish Presidency said that the two leaders are also expected to discuss bilateral and regional issues.
“A follow-up of the talks President Erdogan and President Putin held in St. Petersburg on August 9 and in the Chinese city of Hangzhou on September 3 in the margins of the G20 Summit, the visit is expected to give momentum to the normalization process of the Turkey-Russia relations and contribute to the improvement of cooperation between the two countries,” the statement read.
During a telephone conversation on Thursday, Erdogan and Putin discussed the crisis in Syria and the means to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged residents of Aleppo.
The Turkish sources said that Ankara was keen on cooperating with Moscow to find a solution to the situation in Syria. They added that both sides will try to overcome divergence of views to reach a political agreement.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey would implement various steps in order to improve bilateral relations with Russia in the economic and political fields, and wants to bring them to the new quality level.
In an interview with Russia’s Sputnik news agency ahead of Putin’s visit to Turkey, Cavusoglu said: “Overall our relations are moving in the right direction, we plan not only to return to the pre-crisis level but to reach new heights.”
“We support the dialogue to resolve disagreements on a number of issues on which we have differences with the Russian side. Under the framework of the dialogue, there are working mechanisms which we have launched. For example, we are currently focusing our efforts on the Syrian settlement. On the other hand, we are taking steps to raise our economic and political relations to a new, more advanced level,” the Turkish foreign minister added.