Erdoğan, Putin meet at G-20 summit in Hamburg

HAMBURG

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met on July 8 on the sidelines of the G-20 Hamburg Summit in Germany.  

The two leaders discussed bilateral cooperation, the Syrian crisis, the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline project and Akkuyu nuclear power plant, the Kremlin said in a statement.  

"We have been keeping in contact on a regular basis. A great deal has been achieved recently, both towards a full-scale development of bilateral relations and to address a number of problems that concern us," Putin said, according to the statement. 

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, National Intelligence Organization head Hakan Fidan and Presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın also attended the meeting.

Ahead of the one-hour meet, Erdoğan stressed the positive consequences of Ankara's relationship with Moscow, saying that expectations were high in Syria and the region.

"Above all, the expectations at the region regarding Syria and Iraq are very high. I place importance to our meeting also from that point," Erdoğan said.

Putin meanwhile said situation in Syria changed for the better due to Turkey’s role and gained ground in anti-terror fight.

He also added that bilateral relations reached to a significant point as many problems were resolved.

The leaders of world’s 20 major economies are holding the two-day summit in Hamburg where they discuss the global economy, climate change, the fight against terrorism and other international issues. 

In June, Russian state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom signed an agreement with a Turkish consortium of contracting conglomerates, to sell a 49 percent stake in Turkey's Akkuyu nuclear power plant project.  

The plant is estimated to meet around 6-7 percent of Turkey's electricity demand.