Russia and Turkey agree on future steps

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu held a joint press conference after negotiations in Moscow today, according to the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

"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," Lavrov said in his speech.

He noted the need for building up "practical cooperation" in the field of military-technical cooperation, as well as other areas - in the automotive, agriculture and banking sectors.

The ministers have also discussed Syria and the speedy completion of work to create the Syrian Constitutional Commission.

"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," Lavrov said.

According to the Russian diplomat, the joint meeting of Russian and Turkish foreign, defense ministers will be held in Moscow, where the sides will discuss the situation in Idlib, Syria.

"These issues [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," Sputnik cited Lavrov as saying.

The Russian foreign minister has called for minimizing the risks to the population of Idlib, saying that "the de-escalation zone was not created so that fighters could hide behind peaceful citizens."

Turkey’s Foreign Minister has also commented on the Syria situation, saying that Ankara is interested in the elimination of terrorists in Idlib as they threaten the country’s national security.

At the same time, according to the Turkish diplomat, "while eliminating terrorists, it is unacceptable to harm the lives of civilians." "This can provoke a flow of refugees, drama, a human catastrophe," Cavusoglu said.

The Russian diplomat also said that Russian and Turkey will soon establish a mechanism for consultations on easing visa restrictions for certain categories of Turkish nationals.

"We have confirmed Russia’s readiness for talks on easing visa restrictions for certain categories of Turkish citizens, we will work on it in the near future. We have agreed to establish a mechanism for consultations in order to develop agreements on this matter," Lavrov said.

Cavusoglu also said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will meet soon at the Astana-format summit in Iran.

"Our presidents are expected to hold a meeting soon," he said, referring to the upcoming summit of the three guarantor countries of the Syrian ceasefire (Russia, Turkey and Iran). As foreign ministers, we must make preparations for such events," he noted.