Moscow appreciates Turkey’s independent foreign policy and Ankara’s refusal to join anti-Russian sanctions, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Ankara after taking part in a session of Turkey’s ambassadors and permanent envoys to international organizations. He also held a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.
"In foreign affairs Russia and Turkey pursue independent policies," the Russian top diplomat noted at the press conference. "We appreciate our partners’ refusal to join anti-Russian sanctions," he stressed.
Lavrov said the situation in the world remained alarming. "It will not be an exaggeration to say we are at a turning point of world history - a phase of transition from bipolar and multi-polar models and patterns to building a polycentric world order, which is being formed as an objective reality," he said.
"Resistance to objective trends is obvious: the methods of sanctions, threats, blackmailing and dictating are widely in use," TASS cited Lavrov as saying.
The Turkish Foreign Minister, in turn, stressed that Ankara has never supported the anti-Russian sanctions and will never support anti-Iranian ones either.
He also called on the U.S. to drop its "erroneous position on sanctions imposed on Turkey." "They must drop their threats, otherwise there can be no progress in relations between the United States and Turkey," Cavusoglu stressed.
