Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted Friday a statement pledging to boost political and economic cooperation including in energy and trade.
The statement comes following President Erdoğan’s visit to the Black Sea city of Sochi.
“Despite the current regional and global challenges, the leaders reaffirmed their common will to further develop Russian-Turkish relations,” the Kremlin said in a statement following the four-hour talks.
Putin and Erdoğan agreed to ramp up trade and boost economic and energy cooperation with a focus on transport, agriculture, tourism and construction.
The statement said the two leaders agreed “to meet the expectations of the opposite side in the spheres of economy and energy.”
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, speaking in televised remarks, called the agreements “very important,” with ties aiming to reach “a new level of development” across “virtually all sectors.”
Both leaders also stressed the importance of “sincere, frank and trusting relationships” to achieve regional and global stability, the Kremlin said.
While Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine was not explicitly mentioned in the statement, the leaders stressed the resumption of Ukrainian grain shipments, pointing to the two countries’ “constructive relations” that they stressed made the agreement possible.
The statement also made mentioned both countries’ continuous efforts in Syria.
“The parties confirmed that they attach great importance to advancing the political process” in Syria, the statement said.
“The determination to act jointly and in close coordination with each other in the fight against all terrorist organisations was reaffirmed.”
At the start of the talks Putin also praised the TurkStream natural gas pipeline project, saying Europe should be grateful to Turkey for uninterrupted supplies of Russian gas.
“I believe that (today’s meeting) will open a whole different page in Turkish-Russian relations,” Erdoğan said.
Putin and Erdoğan last met for a three-way summit in Iran in July.