12:25 21.02.2017

Turkey has disagreements with Russia on some issues, including Crimea

1 min read
Turkey has disagreements with Russia on some issues, including Crimea

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said that his country is committed to the development of relations with Russia, but there still exist differences on a number of issues between the two countries.

"Before the incident we had very good relations with Russia and no one asked why we had such a good relationship. After the incident, many countries in NATO and the EU advised to normalize relations with Russia, because they don't need an additional factor of tension. We have normalized relations and then they started asking me 'why did you normalize relations with Russia?'," Cavusoglu said during the Munich Security Conference on Sunday.

The minister said Turkey maintains a principled policy. Before the incident when in November 2015 Turkish fighter jet was shot down by a Su-24 Russian bomber, Ankara had problems with the Crimean issue and it has not accepted the annexation of the Crimea, Cavusoglu said.

He said Turkey has a different position on the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime, the differences remain.

Cavusoglu said Russia is a trade partner of Turkey, the two countries have a lot of joint projects, but at the same time, there are also differences.

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