Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Tuesday discussed by phone the liberation of the Iraqi city of Mosul, the Syrian crisis and bilateral ties, a Kremlin press statement has said.
“The course of the operation to liberate Iraqi city of Mosul was discussed… The leaders exchanged views on the settlement of the Syrian crisis. The Russian side, in particular, emphasized the importance of ensuring of the effective separation of the moderate opposition troops from the Nusra Front militants and other terrorist groups affiliated with it…” the press release said.
The two leaders also discussed bilateral political, trade and economic cooperation in the context of top-level Russian-Turkish negotiations that took place in İstanbul on Oct. 10, according to the press statement.
Bilateral relations suffered a setback after a Russian jet was shot down by Turkey after it violated Turkish airspace near its border with Syria last year. The relations began improving after Erdoğan formally apologized to Putin over the jet incident in June of this year.