Turkish and Russian foreign ministers meet for first time since jet crisis

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Friday for the first time since diplomatic relations were severed in the wake of Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet that entered its airspace last November, AlKhaleejonline.com has reported. “We hope that this meeting normalises our relations,” said Lavrov.

“The presidents of both countries have discussed the normalisation issue on the telephone and they asked us to make it so,” added Cavusoglu.

In the first sign that tension between Ankara and Moscow is being eased, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ordered lifting of the sanctions put in place on Turkish tourism. He also ordered the normalisation of other commercial links.