Russian foreign minister heads to Turkey to seal visa deal
The Turkish and Russian foreign ministers will meet in Antalya Friday to discuss a range of topics as a controversial missile deal between Ankara and Moscow threatens to further deteriorate Turkey-US ties.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov are due to meet in Turkey’s southern Mediterranean resort city of Antalya tomorrow amid escalating tensions with Washington over Ankara’s determined plans to purchase Russian S-400 missiles.
The meeting has been billed as the Seventh Turkish Russian Joint Strategic Planning Group Meeting being held under the aegis of the Turkish Russian High-Level Cooperation Council.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said that a “2019-2020 Plan for Consultations between the Foreign Ministries of the Republic of Turkey and the Russian Federation” would be signed at the conclusion of the talks. The verbose labelling that would have warmed Lenin’s heart is intended to signal deepening ties between the historical rivals just as Turkey’s links to its traditional NATO ally the United States grow brittler by the day.
Cavusoglu and Lavrov are scheduled to tackle a wide range of issues including passport-free travel for Russian citizens who flock to Antalya every year and most critically Syria.
