MOSCOW/SOCHI - Russian President Vladimir Putin may meet with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, before this year's G20 summit, scheduled for September in east China's Hangzhou City, the Kremlin said Friday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow did not rule out the possibility of such a meeting before the G20, but added that he is now not sure where this will take place.
Putin and Erdogan had a telephone conversation on Wednesday after the Turkish president had offered apologies for the downing of a Russian warplane in November 2015. Moscow said it accepted the apology, signalling its readiness for mending bilateral ties that soured after the incident.
Peskov said he expected a month of intense contacts of Russian officials with their Turkish colleagues, since the government has been ordered to start the process of a step-by-step lifting of restrictive measures imposed by Moscow against Ankara.
On Thursday, Putin signed a decree canceling the ban on charter flights between Russia and Turkey.
Earlier on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation.
The parties discussed the process of organizing a series of meetings between officials of the two sides aimed at restoring ties, Lavrov said at a press conference after the meeting.
Lavrov also discussed with Cavusoglu the situation in Syria, including the necessity to prevent delivery of supplies for terrorists via Turkish territory, with the two sides agreeing to restart the work of a Russian-Turkish anti-terrorist commission, which has been frozen over the last seven months.
Lavrov said the two sides have reached consensus on what groups should be considered terrorists in Syria, which "are, under the United Nations Security Council resolutions, the Islamic State, the Jabhat al-Nusra and other smaller groups affiliated with them."
Noting that his talks with Lavrov was "constructive," Cavusoglu said the improvement of Ankara's relations with Russia and Israel will have a positive impact on the whole region. (Xinhua)