Azernews.Az

By Gunay Hasanova

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Turkey’s Istanbul to attend the 23rd World Energy Congress on October 10, TASS agency reports.

The Russian leader is expected to meet with his Turkish and Venezuelan counterparts, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Nicolas Maduro on the sidelines of the congress,.

This is Putin’s first visit to Turkey after the process of normalization of relations with Ankara started. Putin’s previous visit to Turkey took place in November 2015, when he attended the G20 summit in Antalya.

The Russian president will speak at a special session of the 23rd World Energy Congress. Ahead of the congress, Putin discussed the situation on the global energy markets at his traditional meeting with permanent members of the Russian Security Council last week.

Putin’s talks with Erdogan on the sidelines of the Energy Congress will focus on current issues of relations between the two countries, as well as on regional and international agenda, the Kremlin said.

The talks are expected to yield a number of bilateral documents. According to Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, the two presidents "will discuss issues related to the normalization of the Russian-Turkish relations in all aspects," and the international agenda will focus on the situation in Syria.

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Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

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