Russia looks to improve relations with Turkey

Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu and Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov met this week to discuss their nations’ future relations. Lavrov claims that the two countries seek to continue a partnership and that both governments are striving to left specific visa regulations, improve military partnerships, and discover a constitutional solution for the crises in Syria. Lavrov disclosed the details of the meeting to reporters during a press conference in Moscow.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lavrov stated that, “Turkey is one of Russia‘s key partners, we see an increase in our economic relations. And we intend to build up our military-technical cooperation. We have reaffirmed Russia’s readiness to negotiate the facilitation of trips for certain categories of Turkish citizens on a reciprocal basis and will do so in the near future. We have agreed to create a mechanism for consultations on preparing agreements on this issue. We discussed international problems, focused on Syria, reviewed implementation of the agreements reached within the framework of the Astana format at the highest level, at the level of experts, reviewed implementation of the decisions by the Congress of the Syrian National Dialogue that took place in Sochi within the framework of creating a constitutional commission, this work continues. We discussed the tasks of its prompt completion. These issues [the situation in Idlib] are being discussed between foreign ministries; they are being discussed between our military, intelligence services, the [Turkish] defense minister is now in Moscow. We have not finished this work today; we will have an additional meeting with the participation of all our colleagues.”

Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu stated that, “While eliminating terrorists, it is unacceptable to harm the lives of civilians. This can provoke a flow of refugees, drama, a human catastrophe.” While the United States and Turkey continue to stand at odds with each other, Russia is moving in. It is rather concerning that a NATO partner is getting cozy with Russia.