Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says after talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin that the two nations can rebuild their damaged ties and make them even closer. Calling Putin his “dear friend,” Erdogan said Turkey is ready to implement a natural gas pipeline project with Russia and a deal to build Turkey’s first nuclear power plant.
Putin, in his turn, said that the flow of Russian tourists to Turkey, halted after the downing of a Russian jet by Turkey in November, will resume. Putin added that he and Erdogan will have a separate discussion on Syria later Tuesday involving top military and intelligence officials to search for common ground in the crisis, where Moscow and Ankara have backed the opposing sides.
“Ahead of us lies painstaking work to resuscitate trade and economic cooperation. This process has already started but it will take some time,” Putin told a press conference in Saint Petersburg.
"I think it is possible to align our views and approaches," Putin told reporters on Syria.
Earlier, Erdogan thanked Putin for inviting him for talks Tuesday aimed at repairing ties shattered by Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane along the Syrian border last year.
The downing of the Russian jet in November, which Putin described as a “treacherous stab in the back,” came amid boiling tensions over Syria, where Moscow and Ankara back opposing sides in the war. Russia promptly cut ties with Turkey over the incident, banned Turkish vegetables, restricted Russian tourists’ access to Turkey and blocked some Turkish companies from working on its market.
Erdogan in June sent a letter to Putin with a long-anticipated apology for Turkey’s downing of the jet, setting the scene for the meeting Tuesday at Konstantin Palace in St. Petersburg.
