Putin eyes continued Russia-Turkey cooperation in 2021

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The Russian president on Wednesday expressed confidence that Moscow and Ankara will continue to cooperate to strengthen security and stability of Eurasia in the upcoming year.

This came in a message sent by Vladimir Putin to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"The Russian leader expressed confidence that in the coming year, Moscow and Ankara would continue to productively interact on important issues on the bilateral, regional and international agendas, which fully meets the interests of the peoples of Russia and Turkey and is in line with strengthening stability and security in Eurasia," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Despite the “challenging” coronavirus pandemic, the statement said the relations between two countries have progressed across all key areas and that a meaningful political dialogue is being continued.

It said that important energy projects are also being implemented and high level of cooperation in trade, the economy, defense and other areas is being maintained.

This year the two leaders met thrice in person despite the pandemic, launched together TurkStream gas pipeline, took part in a video conference on Syria in the Astana format and spoke over the phone over 20 times.