A joint summit at the delegations level between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has ended Thursday evening.
The meeting at the delegations’ level followed a bilateral meeting between the two presidents in the Kremlin that lasted three hours and ten minutes, while the two meeting together lasted 5 hours and 40 minutes.
Erdogan and Putin’s meeting aimed at discussing the development in Idlib province, in northeastern Syria, following the latest escalation in the region, which culminated in the death of 33 Turkish soldiers, who were killed in the fourth de-escalation zone due to an airstrike by Assad regime forces.
The two leaders have reached a package of resolutions to ease tension in Syria’s Idlib; including a ceasefire that will start at midnight and establishing a safe corridor in the region.
Erdogan has announced reaching a joint document on the resolutions agreed by both parties on Idlib.
The Russian President has affirmed his conviction that the pace of combatting terrorism shall not be reduced, and the Syria’s sovereignty shall be preserved. Meanwhile, Turkish president reaffirmed that the main responsible for the tension in Idlib is the Syrian regime, confirming that the cooperation between Russia and Turkey is “unprecedented and we will work to enhance it.”
Erdogan announced that he agreed with Putin that a ceasefire will start at midnight and at the dawn of Friday.
In his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pointed out that the two countries agreed on establishing a safe corridor in Idlib.
At the beginning of his meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Russian President indicated that situation in Idlib has escalated to a degree that required direct consultations between both leader, emphasizing on the need to end the tension and work to prevent repeating it in the future.
On killing the Turkish soldiers in Syria, Putin said that loosing people has always been a great tragedy, explaining that Russian and Syrian forces were not aware of the location of Turkish soldiers, and that Syrian army has also suffered great losses during that period.
“It is necessary to discuss today’s situation and to work on preventing it in the future, in order not to affect the Russian-Turkish relations that we highly value,” Putin added.
“Upon your request, we are ready to talk face to face, and officials of the two government will join us later,” Putin addressed his guest.
Erdogan referred to the strong Turkish-Russian relations, reiterating that working on developing these relations is an important issue.
“Our relations are now at the peak, and this applies to defense industries and commercial relations. We believe that the main task is to develop these relations, and I believe that we can,” Erdogan said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited, Thursday, March 5, 2020, the Russian capital Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and discuss the bilateral relations in addition to the latest developments in the Syrian province of Idlib.
During the visit a group of senior Turkish officials has accompanied the Turkish President, the most prominent of which are Turkish Minister of Defense General Hulusi Akar, Minister of Finance Berat Albayrak, Chief of the General Intelligence Hakan Vidan , and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
