Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Ankara on Thursday for a two-day visit to discuss the Russian war on Ukraine, the Black Sea grain corridor, and Ankara's ties with Damascus and Yerevan.

Lavrov's arrival in Ankara to meet his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, takes place only days after talks between senior diplomats from Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iran in Moscow earlier this week. The Moscow gathering was organized as part of the Kremlin's efforts to help broker a rapprochement between the Turkish and Syrian governments.

"I sincerely urge you to conduct discussions based on a clear and straightforward principle of mutual respect for the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Syria and Turkey, and be guided by the desire to overcome the existing issues quickly and to restore neighborly relations," the top Russian diplomat said, calling on the two sides to leave behind "confrontational rhetoric and memories of bygone grievances."

As the meeting in Moscow concluded on Tuesday, Russia and Turkey made terse statements on the "transparency" and "frankness" of the talks with little reference to what they agreed upon. The expected next step — a meeting between the Syrian and Turkish foreign ministers — was also unmentioned. Russian sources say Cavusoglu and Lavrov may tentatively set a date for the foreign ministers' meeting during this visit in Ankara. Defense ministers of Turkey, Syria and Russia met last December after over a decade to discuss terrorism intelligence, the return of Syrian refugees and the Syrian issue in general. However, Ankara's ultimate goal of a presidential-level meeting between Syria's Bashar al-Assad and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is under intense pressure before the country's crucial polls on May 14 to send Syrian refugees back or at least provide a timeline on when he can do so, seems far off.