Italian FM Hails Warming in Russia-Turkey Relations

© AP Photo / Bilal HusseinItalian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni speaks during his meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil at the Lebanese foreign ministry in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni speaks during his meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil at the Lebanese foreign ministry in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, July 14, 2015 - Sputnik International
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The warming of relations between Ankara and Moscow is a positive development, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Friday.

Mevlut Cavusoglu. File photo - Sputnik International
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ROME (Sputnik) — On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin to express regret and send condolences for the November 2015 downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber in Syria by Turkey.

On Wednesday, the two leaders held a phone conversation for the first time in more than seven months. Following the talks with Erdogan, Putin ordered the government to prepare to lift administrative restrictions against Turkey in tourism field.

"Ten years of Brussels' closed doors did not help [Turkey to get closer to the European Union]. Now, there are two positive facts. The first is the migrant agreement… The second is the warming of relations between Ankara and Moscow," Gentiloni told La Stampa newspaper.

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The minister said that Turkey had come under attack, and its support in the process of getting closer to the European Union was "not a formal gesture." Gentiloni added that Turkey's isolation would be "masochism."

Turkey was officially recognized as a candidate for full EU membership in 1999. Talks on the issue started in 2005 but they have been repeatedly deadlocked, as the sides failed to agree on the implementation of technical points that Ankara must fulfill to achieve the standards required for EU membership.

In March, the European Union and Ankara agreed on a deal under which Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive in the European Union through its territory in exchange for Syrian refugees accommodated in Turkey, on a one-for-one basis. In return, the bloc pledged to accelerate the Turkish EU accession bid and introduce a visa-free regime.

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