Solnechnogorsk, Aug 2 Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to determine exactly the place and timing of the meeting as soon as possible, Russian leader's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Erdogan invites his Russian colleague to his country, press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said.
«The place will be discussed, it is not necessarily Turkey. But Erdogan invites you. You know that the president himself (Putin — ed.) at a nightly press conference in St. Petersburg said that now is the time when he should be in the country. Therefore, it is difficult for him to make any visits now, but I repeat once again that all this will be coordinated through diplomatic channels,» Peskov said.
«They had been planning to meet for a long time, even before the presidential elections in Turkey. But before the elections they decided do not do this in order not to give food to spiteful critics who would immediately begin to accuse Moscow of interfering in Turkey's internal affairs. Therefore, we decided to do it later,» Peskov said.
He noted that even after the elections, Erdogan's schedule remains busy, recalling that Turkey continues to cope with the consequences of the earthquake. secondly, in terms of timing, this will all be done through diplomatic channels, because the agenda is, firstly, our bilateral relations, which are very, very diversified, of course, this is Ukraine, this, of course, is a question grain deal, on which today Putin gave an exhaustive explanation to his Turkish counterpart. And, of course, an exchange of views on all world affairs that are presented by the news every day,» Peskov added.
Powerful earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 occurred February 6 with an interval of nine hours in the province of Kahramanmaras in southeastern Turkey. Tremors were felt in 11 provinces of the country and neighboring states, including Syria. The Turkish authorities called the earthquake the catastrophe of the century. The death toll from the February 6 earthquake in southeastern Turkey reached 50.5 thousand people.