Putin, Erdogan Discuss Restoring Russia-Turkey Ties

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed resuming complete diplomatic relations on the eve of the G20 summit in China.

Relations were damaged after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane in November 2015, killing the pilot.

"There is still a lot to do in order to completely reestablish cooperation in all areas," Putin said after the bilateral meeting in Guangzhou, adding that “we can go forward on our path of cooperation" once the situation in Turkey is "completely normalized.”

The two countries patched up relations after Erdogan sent a letter to the Russian leader in June that expressed condolences to the killed pilot’s family.

Erdogan said he and Putin would take “certain measures” to move bilateral ties forward, notably on their joint TurkStream project, which aims to increase Russian gas exports to Southern Europe via Turkey.

After Turkey shot down the Russian plane at the Turkish-Syrian border, Russia imposed travel restrictions on Russians and economic sanctions against Turkey.

Based on reporting by AFP and dpa