Putin, Erdoğan to meet in Sochi in May

MOSCOW - Anadolu Agency

AFP photo

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet in the Russian city of Sochi on May 3, a Kremlin spokesman said on April 21.      

Putin and Erdoğan will discuss the situation in Syria, Dmitry Peskov told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, without providing any other details about the meeting.      

The last meeting between the two leaders was held on March 10 at the sixth High-Level Cooperation Council meeting in Moscow.      

Recently, Putin congratulated Erdoğan on April 18 for narrowly winning the April 16 referendum on constitutional amendments.

The Russian president telephoned Erdoğan to congratulate him for the “successful carrying out” of the referendum, the Kremlin had said.

The tentative recent rapprochement comes after months of tension between the two countries. In November 2015 Turkey downed a Russian warplane on the Syrian border for breaching its air space. Moscow responded by barring the sales of package tours to Turkey and halting the imports of agricultural products, moves that badly hurt the Turkish economy.

In June 2016, Erdoğan penned a letter to Putin, expressing Turkey’s sorrow for downing the plane. The move helped rebuild ties, while Putin also offered firm support to the Turkish leader in the wake of the July 2016 coup attempt.