The Kremlin on Monday drew Turkey’s attention to a warning from the Russian Defense Ministry that Moscow could not guarantee the safety of Turkish planes flying in Syria after Damascus said it was closing the airspace over the Idlib region, Reuters reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, would hold talks on Syria in Moscow on Thursday.
Peskov told reporters that Moscow and Ankara are keeping lines of communication open and that the focus must now be on dialogue between the Turkish and Russian leaders, according to AFP.
“Our militaries are in constant contact. The main thing is that we now focus on negotiations between Putin and Erdoğan,” he said.
Despite being on opposing sides of the conflict, Turkey and Russia have coordinated closely in the past.
They secured a deal in the southern Russian city of Sochi in 2018 that led to Turkey establishing 12 military observation posts in Idlib to prevent a Syrian offensive and a fresh flood of refugees into Turkish territory.