Today’s Zaman

01 February 2010, Monday

Medvedev to pay `key’ visit to Turkey in May
Dmitry Medvedev

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Turkish counterpart,
Abdullah Gül, have confirmed that Medvedev will pay a visit to Turkey
in May, the Kremlin press service announced, noting that both leaders
agreed that this visit will be of `key’ importance in the next period
of Russian-Turkish bilateral relations.

Medvedev and Gül had a telephone conversation upon the latter’s
initiative on Saturday when they exchanged views on the Caucasian
region, while Gül expressed his appreciation for Russia’s contribution
to the international efforts to achieve progress on the
Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, a statement by the Kremlin press service
said.

The both sides expressed satisfaction with the joint work in the Black
Sea region and discussed European security issues, including the
Russian initiative to develop a treaty on European security.

The central event in Russian-Turkish relations in the near future will
be the planned visit by the Russian president to Turkey, the press
service said, noting that the agreement on the visit planned for May
was confirmed during the conversation.

The talk between Gül and Medvedev came days after Medvedev hosted
Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev in the Krasnaya Polyana ski resort near Sochi last Monday for
talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a territorial dispute between
Baku and Yerevan.

Russia, along with France and the United States, is one of the three
co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has striven to resolve the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for more than 17 years.

01 February 2010, Monday
TODAY’S ZAMAN ANKARA