Relations will continue from where they left off, Erdogan and Putin emphasized

President Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Putin held a press conference after their meeting which lasted an hour and forty-five minutes. The two leaders emphasized that the relations will continue from where they left off.

Erdoğan: We Will Resolve the Ankara-Moscow Line into a Trust and Friendship Line Again

The following are the highlights from President Erdoğan's statements:

- Today we had extensive and fruitful meetings. It was the first face to face meeting we had in a long time.

- Both sides are determined and have the required will to bring the relations to the previous levels and even take it beyond. As a result of the meetings we have taken decisions which will bring the Turkish-Russian relations to the levels they should be in the political, economic, cultural and humane fields.

- We will, together with Russia, hopefully take joint and systematic steps towards the restoration of High-Level Cooperation Council, the resumption of charter flights, elimination of restrictions on trade, including in the agricultural sector, the formation of the atmosphere for the activities of Turkish businessmen in Russia, as well as the implementation of full-fledged visa-free regime again.

- We are especially taking the necessary steps to give the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Station a status of strategic investment.

- We have come to terms on the establishment of a Turkish-Russian Mutual Investment Fund.

 - We will increase our cooperation in the field of defence industry.

- On regional matters, we find the establishment of a Turkish-Russian-Azerbaijan trilateral summit mechanism, positive.

- The progress that we will make by accelerating our large cooperation projects such as Akkuyu Nuclear Power Station is of importance.

- Putin’s call after July 15 is very important. We will resolve the Ankara-Moscow line into a trust and friendship line again.

- Today, we have demonstrated a joint attitude towards improving relations, we will continue contacts at all levels.

- In our opinion, Turkey-Russia relations are much better than the past.

- We have reinstated the $100 billion bilateral trade target.

 PUTIN: OUR PRIORITY IS TO RETURN TO THE PRE-CRISIS LEVEL

Following are highlights from Putin's remarks:

- This meeting is of major significance for the future of bilateral relations. We had a constructive conversationon theentire spectrum of bilateral ties.

- Our priority is to return to the pre-crisis level. This is a very important target.

-Energy and energy projects constitute the keypoint in our bilateral ties. We have to take concrete political steps to realize our energy projects. Turkish side has already taken the necessary steps in projects like the Turkish stream and nuclear power plant.

- We will make progress on restoring the flow of Russian tourists to Turkey.

- Only technical details remain to be resolved for the resumption of charter flights.

- Turkish firms will continue their construction operations in Russia.

-We will gradually abolish the restrictions on Turkey companies and revive cooperation mechanisms. The meeting of the Joint Economic Commission will be held in autumn and the meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council will be held next year.

- We have also exchanged opinions on international issues. We have discussed the necessary steps regarding the Syrian issue.

- We have planned to initially focus on normalizing trade relations including agriculture.

- Visa issue will be addressed one way or another.