President Erdoğan and Russian President Putin held a joint press statement following their meeting.

Speaking here, President Erdoğan said, “We expect Russia to completely abolish restrictions on economic relations with our country. Only it will be possible for us to achieve the target of $ 100 billion trade volume as we have explained in the past. Because we have achieved the target of 38 billion dollars as two countries, but it decreased to 17 billion dollars due to last events. We are going to make a record this year especially in the field of tourism. I invite our Russian friends from here to my country.”

"No one should endanger the territorial integrity and national unity of Syria"

"For the Geneva process to lead us to the end, all sides need to work sincerely, especially the regime." Erdoğan continued his explanations as follows:

“It should be accepted that it is not possible to push a terror organization out with another terror organization. As a country that has been fighting with terror for 35 years, especially terrorist organizations like Daesh, PYD, YPG, El Nusra are always against us. No one should endanger the territorial integrity and national unity of Syria. We will continue our efforts to find a solution based on justice and equity together co-operation with Russia.”

Russian President Putin said that he would abolish the working visa ban for Turkish citizens. Putin said, “Work permits for Turkish citizens, visa facilitation and bans on Turkish companies will take place at the nearest time, and a political decision has been taken in this regard.”

Putin said that relations between Turkiye based on ministries, parliament, and interregional relations have developed, and they have signed a medium-term program to increase trade and services, and they have decided to establish a new mutual fund. Putin noted that this fund would be a billion-dollar capital.

Referring to the Turkish Current in his speech, Putin said that one of the priority targets is the establishment of industrial partnership with Turkiye. Stating that 2019 plans to be a cultural and tourism year, Putin said that Turkiye has started to become a favorite country for Russian tourists.

Putin: Cease-fire in Syria is being maintained

Reminding that Turkiye and Russia have started political negotiations in Astana about the efforts of Syria, Putin said, “The ceasefire is being maintained in Syria thanks to Turkiye, Russia and Iran. Violence has been reduced largely and we are determined to continue the cooperation with Turkiye especially in the fight against Daesh. We will do this with the help of intelligence agencies and soldiers and once again thank the Turkish president for the content interviews.”

On the Moscow delegation of the President Erdoğan, the Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar, MIT Undersecretary Hakan Fidan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdağ, Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekçi, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak, Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Faruk Çelik, Minister of Tourism Nabi Avci, National Defense Minister Fikri Işık and Transport, Maritime and Communications Minister Ahmet Arslan.

The meeting of Erdoğan and Putin in the Kremlin is the fourth face-to-face contact the leaders carried out after the F16s of Turkiye dropped a Russian plane in November 2015 and then relations re-normalized. (ILKHA)