Russia’s Lavrov Says He Heard ‘Nothing New’ From Turkey During Meeting on

Thursday saw the first high-level contact between Ankara and Moscow during a private meeting of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the OSCE summit in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

The shoot-down, the first time a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation country has downed a Russian plane in more than half a century, sparked a bitter falling out between the two nations, which had developed robust economic ties.

“The meeting between the two foreign ministers has begun as scheduled”, AFP quoted a Turkish foreign ministry official saying.

Davutoglu insisted Turkey did not know the nationality of the plane it downed inside Turkish air space. Turkish media reported on Friday that Russia’s trade minister advised Russian auto producers to consider diversifying their suppliers before a counter-move from Turkey, their main supplier.

Speaking after talks with his Cypriot counterpart on Wednesday, Lavrov said his country’s aim is to ensure that it doesn’t allow the “overflow” of terrorist threats in Turkey from making their way into Russian Federation.

“We gave our response to the claims that have been raised”, Cavusoglu said after the talks.

“We can not accept, understand or tolerate the recently escalating rhetoric and discourse along with the comments of Russian leaders on Russian TVs which turned into a smear campaign against Turkey”, he said.

“No, by no means will we do it unless the Turkish side offers (it)”, he said, adding that Moscow is about to start “searching for alternative markets, channels and directions (for import flows)” when answering the question about potential suspension of Russian grain export to Turkey. Along with our coalition, we are taking measures to clear the border from Daesh militants and will do everything possible to push them out. The militants shot and killed the downed plane’s pilot while he was descending on parachute and also killed a Russian marine involved in rescuing the plane’s co-pilot.

While the spotlight was largely on Russia-Turkey relations, the dominant topic at official group talks in Belgrade was the crisis in and around Ukraine.