Turkey is one of Russia’s most important partners: Putin
16:35, 13/10/2015, TuesdayU: Update: 16:49, 13/10/2015, Tuesday
Yeni Şafak
Describing Turkey as one of its most important trade and economic partners, Russia’s Putin says Moscow needs to understand the kind of relationship it needs to establish with Ankara in its anti-terror struggle
Speaking at an investment forum on Tuesday in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Turkey was one of Russia's most important partners, and that Russia needed to understand how to build relations with Turkey to fight terrorism.
Putin's statement came amid ongoing tensions between Ankara and Moscow over Russian fighter jets' violation of Turkish airspace during a series of Russian airstrikes in Syria last week.
Ankara strongly condemned the violation and warned Russia to avoid such activities. In a recent televised interview Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Turkish security forces would take action according to the rules of engagement in case of a further move by Russian or any other country's aircraft to violate Turkish airspace.
The U.S., NATO and other western countries also condemned Moscow and called Putin to stop its Syria attacks.
“Russia is not striving for leadership over Syria," President Putin said at an investment conference in Moscow, adding that existing cooperation with Western countries over the Syrian conflict was not enough.
Putin suggested that Russia, the U.S. and Europe should encourage political dialogue between the sides of the Syrian conflict to find a permanent solution for the four-and-half-year long civil war.