“We have proposed a similar step with Russia, but there is nothing being implemented at the moment,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday before departing for a visit to Iraq, during which he and nine ministers accompanying him held a joint cabinet meeting with the Iraqi government.
Erdoğan and his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki, co-chaired the meeting under the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council.
Erdoğan said an agreement to initiate a similar mechanism with Russia was signed when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Ankara in August, when Turkey and Russia signed about 20 agreements on cooperation in a number of areas, including, most notably, energy. “We will put into force a similar mechanism with Russia,” Erdoğan told reporters. Later in the day, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said in Baghdad that the joint cabinet meeting with Russia was likely to take place in the spring.
