Western states have reported concerns about the deepening Turkey-Russia cooperation. The international newspaper Financial Times writes about it, citing sources.
According to the newspaper, after talks between Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, six unnamed Western officials said they were concerned about the rapprochment of politicians and the presidents' statements about their intention to expand cooperation in trade and energy. The sources said they were trying to draw Turkey's attention to the concerns of Western countries.
The European politician, whose name was not mentioned, stressed that the EU is "more and more closely" following the bilateral relations between Russia and Turkey. The interlocutor of the newspaper also called Ankara's behavior towards Moscow "extremely opportunistic".
In addition to this, the Financial Times recalled the US threats, which had already warned Turkey about the dangers of "friendship" with Russia and threatened the countries helping the Russian Federation to evade restrictions with "secondary sanctions".
The author of the publication noted that the European Union in this context remains more restrained. Three European officials specified that there were no official discussions about possible restrictive measures against Turkey in Brussels yet.
Let us remind you that on Friday, August 5, a meeting between Putin and Erdoğan took place in Sochi. The leaders discussed bilateral relations between Russia and Turkey, touched upon issues of cooperation, the effectiveness of the mechanism for exporting grain from Ukrainian ports, as well as the situation in Syria and Ukraine.
