Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay his official visit to Moscow on Thursday to discuss the situation in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Kremlin on Monday.
Over the last two weeks, Erdogan at least twice publicly suggested meeting Putin, but the Kremlin denied that Putin agreed to the proposal, Xinhua news agency reported.
On Friday, Putin and Erdogan spoke over the phone and agreed to consider the possibility of holding a top-level meeting in the near future.
Tensions in Idlib have flared up recently as the Syrian government forces, which are launching wide-scale offensives against the rebels in the area, exchanged fire with Turkish troops, causing multiple deaths on both sides.
Earlier in the month, Erdogan told Putin that the attack carried out by the Syrian government forces harmed the joint efforts for peace in Syria.
In 2019, in a telephonic conversation, the two leaders discussed the need to avoid possible conflicts between the Turkish and Syrian military.
President Putin also raised concerns on the call about “terrorists attempting to break free and infiltrate neighbouring countries” amid Ankara’s offensive against Kurdish-held areas of northern Syria.
The approach by Moscow and Ankara is an echo of their dealings in Syria, where Turkey and Russia, along with Iran, have also set up negotiations that are separate from UN-led efforts to end the fighting.
Earlier, Putin launched the TurkStream gas pipeline, a project which will deliver Russian gas to Turkey and Europe.
The war in Libya, where Turkey is sending troops in support of the UN-recognized Government of National Accord, and the conflict in Syria, where Ankara and Moscow are both militarily involved, are also set to dominate the summit as well.