"[Russia’s First Deputy Economic Development Minister Alexey] Likhachev is in Turkey, he is meeting the [Turkish] minister of economic development and I think that an agreement on holding a meeting between the co-chairs of the intergovernmental commission will be reached there," Novak told reporters.
Relations between Russia and Turkey deteriorated when a Russian Su-24 attack aircraft was shot down on November 24, 2015, by a Turkish fighter near the Turkish border in Syria. Following the incident, Moscow imposed a number of restrictive measures on Turkey.
On June 27, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a letter addressed to Russian leader Vladimir Putin apologized over the downing of the jet.
By doing so Ankara fulfilled one of the conditions put forward by Moscow following the incident that paralyzed the long-term partnership between the two countries. The letter also said legal proceedings were underway against the Turkish citizen allegedly involved in the Russian pilot’s death – another condition put forward by Russia to restore severed ties.
