Turkey, Russia pledge closer cooperation on Syria

ANKARA: Turkey and Russia confirmed on Thursday to continue close cooperation for the solution of Syrian dispute and the two countries will focus on confidence-building measures as part of Astana process.

"We have decided to work intensely on de-escalation zones in Idlib," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. 

"Turkey and Russia have repeated their joint will for the political resolution of the Syrian problem," he noted.

His Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said both leaders have discussed coordination of joint steps aiming to solve the Syrian crisis.

"We have agreed to jointly work on the implementation of the de-escalation zones," Putin stressed, informing that diplomats, intelligence and military officials from Russia, Turkey and Iran will continue to work to this end.

He applauded Erdogan's efforts for realising cease-fire over Astana process.

The process was difficult for all parties of the Syrian dispute and for the guarantor countries, but an important success was achieved by Erdogan's initiatives, Putin said.

Both leaders expressed their satisfaction with the boost of bilateral trade volume in 2017, which has risen by 22 per cent in 8 months of this year. The number of Russian tourists to Turkey increased 11 times in comparison to last year.

"We have removed almost all trade restrictions on Turkish agricultural products. The export of Turkish agricultural products to Russia increased 58 per cent in the first half of 2017," Putin said.

Erdogan said that Turkey and Russia aimed to reach $100 billion trade in the near future.