Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirmed the imminent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Ankara on Sunday evening, without specifying the date, AFP reports.

“Mr. Putin’s visit was foreseen. It should have happened sooner. This visit will provide an opportunity to resolve many issues,” the minister told public broadcaster TRT Haber.

Press reports mentioned a date of February 12, but the Turkish presidency, contacted several times by AFP, refused to confirm that date or specify another date when Recep Tayyip Erdogan will receive his Russian counterpart.

Turkey, which will be the first NATO country Putin will visit after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, last month approved Sweden’s entry into the North Atlantic alliance, 20 months later.

“Our presidents meet regularly,” Fidan reminded.

Their last meeting took place in September 2023 in Sochi, Putin’s holiday residence, but the two leaders have spoken frequently by phone since then.

Erdogan managed to maintain relations with both Ukraine and Russia from the beginning of the war.

Turkey, in particular, helps Moscow circumvent Western sanctions, which it did not join, by continuing to trade with Russia.

“Many issues will be discussed,” Fidan estimated, mentioning energy, the situation in the Gaza Strip, the “grain corridor” in the Black Sea, which allowed the safe export of Ukrainian agricultural products and which Moscow put an end to one year later, in the summer of 2023.

Syria will also be on the agenda, the Turkish minister said. Despite agreeing on many international files, Moscow and Ankara have different views on the presence of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants and their allies in northeastern Syria.

In 2019, an agreement between Moscow and Ankara ended the Turkish offensive by pledging to create a 30-kilometer “security zone” to protect Turkey from attacks that could come from Syria. Turkey accuses Russia of not complying with these agreements. (Source. Agerpress)