Medvedev and Yildirim: Russia and Turkey should develop their relations more actively

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, right, and his Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim shake hands during a news conference, after their meeting at the Gorki presidence outside Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

Russia and Turkey have great potential to increase the bilateral trade and economic cooperation, the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said during a meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

According to him, Russia and Turkey have a historically large volume of trade ties, but for a number of objective and subjective reasons these trade ties have decreased. “We have talked now with the Turkish prime minister, we have possibilities to increase and implement joint projects and to set the tempo of the meeting, give additional boost to economic, investment ties,” Medvedev said.

“We have to maintain the same rate in trade, economic, cultural and other projects and make up for lost time to meet all the expectations of our peoples. We have to increase a little bit this rate of relations,” Sputnik cited Yildirim as saying.

Turkish Prime Minister noted that the relations between the two countries have gone through a difficult time over the last year. “And after this negative experience, we plan to develop our relations at a strategic level,” he said.

“Turkey and Russia are of great importance are not only in terms of the development of relations between the two countries, but also in the fight against terrorism and ensuring peace,” Yildirim noted.

The Russian prime minister added that Russia and Turkey had potential to strengthen bilateral relations and implement new projects. (Vestnik Kavkaza)