Turkey’s Erdoğan, Putin to meet in Moscow in March: Ambassador

ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is planning to pay a visit to Moscow next month to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Turkish Ambassador to Russia Hüseyin Diriöz said Feb. 3.

Speaking in an interview with the Russian Interfax news agency, Diriöz said the president was expected to visit the Russian capital in the first half of March, in what will be the fourth meeting with his Russian counterpart over the past six months.

He also said the visit would be in the sphere of steps to further establish bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries as part of a normalization process to mend ties shattered by the downing of a Russian warplane near Syrian border in November 2016.

According to the ambassador, Ankara and Moscow were also working together to broker a peace deal in Syria, and would discuss how to improve relations amid efforts to solve the crisis.

Erdoğan’s visit to the country will mark his second since the normalization process after the jet crisis and the first after the assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov on Dec. 19, 2016, in Ankara.

After the jet crisis, two leaders first met in St. Petersburg on Aug. 9, 2016, before meeting on the sidelines of a summit in Hangzhou, China, on Sept. 4-5.

On Oct. 10, 2016, Putin staged his first visit to Turkey after the crisis to attend the 23rd World Energy Congress in Istanbul, during which the two countries also inked the strategic Turkish Stream gas pipeline agreement.