Russian, Turkish FMs to meet at OSCE summit

Russia has suspended talks with Turkey on a major gas pipeline project in the Black Sea, in a further escalation after Turkey downed a Russian warplane.

“We will not evade that contact, we will listen to what Mr. Cavusoglu will tell us”.

US Secretary of State John Kerry was also in the Serbian capital for the annual ministerial council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which he was due to address early Thursday.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin called Thursday for “one powerful fist” to fight terrorism, hinted at more sanctions against Turkey and accused Western powers of creating “a zone of chaos”.

The private meeting between Lavrov and Cavusoglu is scheduled for 4.30 p.m. Turkish local time (1430GMT).

Davutoglu again insisted Turkey did not know the nationality of the plane when it brought it down inside Turkish air space. “We confirmed our views”, Lavrov said.

“During the Cold War era there was a Soviet propaganda machine. Turkey has 2 million refugees on whom it has spent $8 billion to date”, Davutoglu said.

Luft notes that Russian Federation will continue to seek diversified relations with its neighbors and former Soviet republics in order not to be dependent on one conduit.

Russian Federation had already said that TurkStream’s planned capacity would be just 32 Bcm/year, down from the original plan for 63 Bcm/year, while Turkey has still not approved the project at governmental level. Erdogan repeated that he would resign if Moscow proved the allegation and said it was actually Russians who were involved in oil dealings.

Turkish Agriculture Minister Faruk Çelik has said the losses fromRussiansanctions on Turkey’s agricultural products are estimated to be around 764 million.

Davutoglu added that Russian operations in Syria were hampering efforts to clear Turkey’s border of IS militants.