Erdogan To Visit Russia On August 9

MOSCOW,(APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th july,2016) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia on August 9 for his first face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin since Moscow and Ankara mended ties damaged by the downing of a Russian jet last year, Turkish officials said Tuesday. "The ambassador has informed us that our dear president (Erdogan) has confirmed that he will be in Saint Petersburg on the 9th (of August)," Russian news agencies quoted Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek as saying.

An official in Turkey confirmed the date, saying that Erdogan and Putin had agreed to meet ahead of the G20 summit in China in September.

Simsek is the highest ranking Turkish official to visit Russia since the November downing of the Russian jet on the Syrian border sparked an unprecedented crisis in relations. He said he was in Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart Arkady Dvorkovich in an effort to "normalise the situation and our relations as soon as possible and at an accelerated pace". Dvorkovich told Russian media that he had discussed a range of investment projects with Simsek, including the possible resumption of talks, frozen in December, on the TurkStream project to pipe gas to Turkey and southern Europe.