Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia's stance on the Syrian crisis is similar to Turkey's and the two countries share the same goals for the future of Syria, but differ on ways of reaching them, Anadolu news agency reported on Monday.

"The positions of the Russian Federation and Turkey completely correspond regarding what has to be attained [in Syria], but as of yet no common approach regarding methods of how to attain it has been reached," Putin said at a press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Middle Eastern nation has been wracked by violence, with at least 20,000 people, mostly civilians, killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 21 months ago. The violence has spawned more than 465,000 refugees, while more than 2.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to UN estimates.

Regarding a stray Syrian shell that had landed in Turkey earlier, killing 5 Turkish citizens in Turkey's south, Putin said he understood Ankara's concerns about border security.

"Turkey and Russia are neighbors who have great responsibilities. We will continue to consult with our Turkish friends," Putin added.

The Russian president downplayed the possible deployment of NATO Patriot air defense systems in Turkey along its border with Syria, and stressed that this would only complicate the situation in the region, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.

"First of all, Patriot is not the best air defense system in the world, and, secondly...the deployment of additional military capability on the border does not ease the tensions but aggravates the situation instead," Putin said.

Putin also said Russia and Turkey had agreed on the need to end the conflict in Syria, but acknowledged that Moscow and Ankara did not yet see completely eye to eye over how to achieve this goal.

"We discussed this issue today with our Turkish colleagues, and came up with some new ideas, which require further analysis and planning," the president said.

Putin reiterated that Russia's stance on the Syrian conflict was not aimed at protecting Bashar al-Assad's regime, but rather reflected Moscow's concerns over the broader outcomes of the crisis in Syria.

"I have said many times that we are not advocates of Syria's current leadership, but we are concerned about what will happen in Syria," he said.

"We do not want repetition of the mistakes which we believe have been made in the recent past," Putin said, implicitly referring to the "Libya scenario," which saw the ouster and murder of long-time Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi after a NATO military campaign.

Praising flourishing economic ties, Putin said that the trade volume between Turkey and Russia increased 20 percent in 2011.

He said the two countries aim to increase their trade turnover, which stood at $32 billion in 2011, to $100 billion in the next few years.

Recalling that they signed a program on economic, scientific and technical cooperation, Putin said that the program envisaged incentives to develop industrial cooperation, strengthen relations in iron-steel and agriculture sectors, and develop technologies in telecommunications, space and satellite communication technologies.

Turkish PM Erdogan in turn said trade relations with Russia had increased seven-fold since his party came to power, adding that Russia was Turkey's second biggest trading partner.

"Our trade volume was $30 billion in 2011 and $24 billion between January and September of 2012," he said, expressing hope that it would reach $35 billion by the end of the year, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Turkish entrepreneurs have made investments worth more than $10 billion in Russia, Erdogan said.

Erdogan also said Turkish construction companies have undertaken 1,400 projects worth $40 billion in Russia. He also praised Russia's $700 million capital flow to Turkey for the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant.

Erdogan also mentioned that as part of the third Turkey-Russia High-Level Cooperation Council meeting, the pair signed a middle-term program on the improvement prospects for the period between 2012 and 2015, as well as 11 related agreements.