Русский
February 27 Update:
Russian and American diplomats will meet in Istanbul on Friday, February 27 to discuss administrative and communication problems in the work of the two countries’ embassies, which stacked up as a result of activities of the previous US administration. The two sides stated that meeting in Istanbul will make it clear “how fast and efficiently they can move forward.”
The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov visited the Turkish President Recep Erdogan, in Ankara on Monday (February 24) for a brief stopover en route for trade discussions with Tehran. Lavrov’s visit came less than a week after the Ukrainian de facto President Zelensky had also held discussions with Erdogan. Ankara has proposed hosting the next round of talks between Russia and the United States concerning the Ukraine conflict.
Turkiye is eyeing a role in possible peace talks between Russia and Ukraine as US President Donald Trump is increasing pressure on Kiev to negotiate with Moscow. On the same day as the US-Russia talks were taking place in Saudi Arabia on February 18, Zelenskyy was in Ankara.
Turkiye originally hosted direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in April 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion, but the negotiations ended without a breakthrough. Ankara has avoided joining Western sanctions on Russia but has provided military support to Ukraine and has closed the Turkish straits to Russian naval vessels, blocking their access to and from the Black Sea in accordance with its international agreements not to allow the straits to be used for military vessels.
Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, also discussed the ceasefire in Gaza and the situation in Syria, where Turkiye has emphasized the need for Syrian territorial unity. Both Moscow and Ankara have significant interest in Syria and need to align on managing the transition to a new government and avoid further conflict.
In addition to the geopolitical issues, the two sides also discussed Russia-Turkiye bilateral trade and investment, with Lavrov making the following statement after the talks:
“We discussed ways to expand bilateral trade and economic ties, including our extensive energy cooperation. We noted mutual interest and promising potential for cooperation in the financial and banking sector, transport and logistics, and industrial cooperation, as well as tourism.
We discussed in detail various aspects of joint work on the construction of Akkuyu NPP which is a strategic project. Russian and Turkish specialists work hard as a team to ensure the physical start-up of Power Plant 1. All four power plants are being built concurrently literally round-the-clock. There is serious potential for starting even more projects in this sphere.
We also covered safe operation of the TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipelines which is important amid unending provocations by the Kiev regime, which seeks to use terrorist acts to undermine steady functioning of energy facilities, including pipelines. It is important that they operate without glitches. Türkiye is a major importer and transit hub of Russian natural gas, and any destabilisation of energy flows for whatever reason will not only weaken the Turkish gas industry, but also exacerbate inflation in the energy market as a whole, which will ultimately affect the ordinary consumer.
We reviewed prospects for deepening cooperation in the South Caucasus, and placed emphasis on building confidence between the parties, rebuilding infrastructure and transport links, and stepping up economic activity, including on the basis of multilateral agreements signed as part of the 3+3 Regional Cooperation Platform (the three countries from the South Caucasus and their three neighbours Russia, Türkiye, and Iran).
Russia will continue to work in Ankara. I feel confident that this meeting will contribute significantly to continued development of the multifaceted cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Türkiye.”
Russia’s Pivot To Asia concentrates on trade, rather than conflict, as media content concerning the latter is readily available elsewhere. However, as regards Lavrov’s answers to media questions concerning Ukraine and Syria, those may be read from the Kremlin translation in English made available here.
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