BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who arrived in St. Petersburg for first talks to reset bilateral relations.
"So many concerns emerged regarding the relations between Turkey and Russia that it is necessary to hold a discussion on this issue at the EU level, as well as NATO," Reinders told the Radio 1 station.
After the November 2015 downing of a Russian aircraft by Turkey over Syria, the relations between the two counties deteriorated, and Moscow imposed a number of restrictive measures on Turkey and has repeatedly said that Ankara should apologize for downing the plane and cover any associated material losses to the country and the pilot's family.
In June, the tensions began to thaw since the Turkish president apologized in a letter to the Russian president for the incident and offered his condolences to the family of the slain Russian pilot.
