MOSCOW, July 17 (RIA Novosti) - Turkey is a priority on Russia's foreign policy agenda, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Sunday."This is confirmed by a new, fourth working meeting of the two countries' leaders for the last seven months," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said shortly before a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, scheduled to be held in Sochi, a Russian resort city.
Yakovenko said Putin's official visit to Ankara, Turkey's capital, in December 2004, and Erdogan's visits to Moscow in January 2005 and in May (to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII) gave "a powerful impetus to dynamically developing Russian-Turkish ties."
The joint political declaration on friendship and partnership between Russia and Turkey signed by the two presidents in 2004 set the task to put bilateral relations to a new level - that of a versatile complex partnership, Yakovenko said.
He said the current visit by the Turkish prime minister to Russia is called upon to contribute to further implementation of the goal.
