Istanbul would be an excellent venue for further peace negotiations with U.S. envoy Witkoff. A personal meeting between V Putin and D. Trump should not be discounted.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks and answers to media questions at a joint news conference following talks with Foreign Minister of the Republic of Türkiye Hakan Fidan, Moscow, May 27, 2025
Good afternoon,
We have held very productive and useful talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye Hakan Fidan. We have known each other for a long while since the time my Turkish counterpart headed the National Intelligence Organisation of his country. We maintain regular contacts that always make it possible for us to discuss in detail issues of importance for promoting our bilateral agenda and collaboration on regional and global problems.
In April, we met on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, a popular and prestigious platform for international politicians and political scientists. In February before that we met during my visit to Ankara. We often talk over the phone. So, our contacts are regular indeed. This helps to implement the agenda that our presidents define at their meetings.
Today, we have confirmed our shared interest in strengthening Russian-Turkish partnership and our common commitment to expanding spheres of interaction and addressing issues that inevitably arise in relations between such countries as Russia and Türkiye, the more so in a situation where the West is deliberately seeking to introduce illegitimate complications thereto. While meeting with Mr Hakan Fidan in the Kremlin yesterday, President of Russia Vladimir Putin reaffirmed our resolve to promote a positive agenda and practical cooperation projects (they are quite extensive), despite the attempts to restrict Russia and Türkiye's legitimate rights to developing this interaction.
We have a firm historical foundation. We also mentioned this yesterday. May 25 marked the 33th anniversary since the signing of the Agreement on the Foundations of Relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Türkiye. Quite soon, on June 3, we will celebrate the 105th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Soviet Russia and the Turkey of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Today, we have discussed prospects for strengthening bilateral cooperation in most different areas.
As I said, we have focused on implementing agreements reached at the highest level. We welcomed the dynamic development of cooperation in energy. The Rosatom State Corporation continues to build the Akkuyu nuclear power plant. We also discussed operation and security of the Turk Stream and Blue Stream pipelines against the background of unending provocations and threats from the Kiev regime.
We noted a steady growth of trade that exceeded $52 billion last year. We will also promote other lines in practical cooperation and diversify our material ties.
We are preparing the next, 19th, meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation to be held in Moscow in late June. We have agreed that our ministries will facilitate the success of this important event in close contact with related agencies - economic, trade, and financial.
Russian citizens like going on holiday to Türkiye. As I understand, last year, the number of Russian holidaymakers visiting Türkiye reached record-breaking levels, compared to other countries. We welcome this commitment. In this connection, we devote great attention to ensuring the safety of our citizens at Türkiye resorts, especially in the context of the upcoming tourism season.
We are ready to expand cooperation between our Ministry for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief and Türkiye's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on issues linked with the need to jointly extinguish and prevent wildfires and other natural disasters.
We have reaffirmed our approaches towards international affairs; these approaches note the advisability and need for close dialogue on Syria. Both sides emphasised their commitment to respecting state sovereignty, political unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic. They reaffirmed the importance of supporting Syrian authorities in overcoming serious challenges, encountered by them during the transitional period.
Russia and Türkiye are interested in expanding cooperation on other Middle East and North African issues, including the situation in Libya which is becoming exacerbated once again. We agreed to exercise our influence on Libyan parties for the sake of avoiding another aggravation fraught with resumption of hostilities.
Russia and Türkiye voice a common position on the Palestinian issue. We believe that developments in Gaza and on the West Bank are unacceptable. Prospects for establishing a Palestinian state (as required by a UN resolution) are deliberately destroyed by creating "facts on the ground." Multiple civilians have already been killed or impacted, and their number continues to increase. We will exercise our entire influence for finding options to end this violence and reinstating agreements that were reached, that seemed able to reliably guarantee a ceasefire but were later violated.
In turn, Russia will closely cooperate with the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, currently chaired by Türkiye, in order to use our common authority and prestige and capabilities for (it would be no exaggeration to say) ending a profound disaster.
We have accumulated experience of collaborating in the 3 + 3 format in the South Caucasus. The format comprises three regional countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), as well as three big neighbours (Russia, Türkiye and Iran), and has already proved effective. We will continue to utilise it.
Certainly, we discussed the situation in Ukraine, just like during yesterday's meeting with President Vladimir Putin, primarily in the context of evaluating direct Russian-Ukrainian talks, held on May 16, 2025 in Istanbul. They were initiated following a telephone call between President of Russia Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump and supported by President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan and my colleague.
We are grateful for Türkiye's readiness to continue facilitating these talks and the entire peace settlement. Our position is well-known. President of Russia Vladimir Putin has recently reiterated it during his public addresses. This implies that the success of the talks will directly depend on our ability to eliminate the well-known root causes of the conflict during these talks.
I believe that we have had a useful conversation. We will continue to maintain contact, including on issues of Black Sea navigation safety (that we have also discussed today). Russia is interested in fulfilling all agreements, reached on this issue over the past three years. Unfortunately, it is impossible to say the same about our Ukrainian neighbours. Their Western patrons allow them to do whatever they want and are inciting them in every way. The position of European countries I particularly obvious.
Our dialogue will continue. I assume that Russia-Türkiye relations have a good future.
Followed by a Q&A session with the press.
