Istanbul, Dec 8 (AFP) Russian President Vladimir Putinwill visit Turkey on Monday for talks with his counterpartRecep Tayyip Erdogan on Syria and the United States'recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the Turkishpresidency said today.
Putin will visit Ankara "at the invitation of" Erdogan,the presidency said in a statement, adding that the talkswould focus on the latest developments on Jerusalem and thesituation in Syria.
The Kremlin confirmed the visit, saying the two menplanned to "discuss current questions of bilateral cooperationand above all the progress of joint projects in energy."This appeared to be a reference to the TurkStreampipeline that is being built under the Black Sea to pumpRussian natural gas to Turkey, and also to the Akkuyu nuclearpower plant Moscow is building in southern Turkey.
It added that talks are also scheduled "on keyinternational problems, including the situation in the MiddleEast and finding a solution in Syria."The latest encounter between the two leaders comes at atime of intense diplomacy between Turkey and Russia,especially over Syria.
It will be their eighth face-to-face meeting this year.
Russia, along with Iran, is the key backer of SyrianPresident Bashar al-Assad, and Moscow's military interventioninside Syria is widely seen as having tipped the balance inthe conflict.
Turkey, however, has backed the rebels seeking Assad'souster in a conflict that has left more than 330,000 dead.
But Russia and Turkey have been working together since a2016 reconciliation deal ended a crisis caused by the shootingdown of a Russian warplane over Syria.
In recent months, Turkey has markedly toned down itscriticism of the Assad regime and focused on opposing a SyrianKurdish militia seen by Ankara as a terror group.
Their last meeting was on November 22 in the Russianresort of Sochi, when they were joined by Iranian PresidentHassan Rouhani for a three way summit on Syria.
Both Turkey and Russia have expressed alarm at the USmove to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Putin said he was "deeply concerned" while Erdogan hastaken a strong line against the move and called an emergencysummit meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation(OIC) for December 13 in Istanbul. (AFP)MRJ.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.