Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Russia to remove all trade sanctions against Ankara for full normalization of relations.
Speaking in Ankara before travelling to the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, Erdogan told reporters that Russia’s restrictions are "a major obstacle to successfully cultivating" bilateral economic cooperation. "Our ministers earlier discussed the sanctions issue and I will be discussing this with Putin. Lifting restrictions is the most important condition for reaching the $100 bln trade turnover goal."
"If we want to reach $100 bln in trade turnover, we need to immediately lift all these restrictions. We would like this to happen and together with Mr. Putin we will be making great efforts to solve current issues and return relations to previous levels," TASS cited Erdogan as saying.
Turkey seeks to "balance trade and economic cooperation with Russia" as the import and export balance is still in Russia’s favor, he noted. Erdogan also said that visa restrictions should be also lifted for an efficient development of ties.
