Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Friday.

Speaking at the joint press conference after the meeting, Lavrov first addressed the visa issue. 

Moscow and Ankara are ready for talks on a mutual basis to facilitate trips for Turkish nationals, said Lavrov adding “We have reaffirmed Russia's readiness to negotiate the facilitation of trips for certain categories of Turkish citizens on a reciprocal basis and will do so in the near future. We have agreed to create a mechanism for consultations on preparing agreements on this issue”.

Lavrov also said that “Turkey is one of Russia's key partners, we see an increase in our economic relations. And we intend to build up our military-technical cooperation”.

He added the need for building up "practical cooperation" in the field of military-technical cooperation, as well as other areas — in the automotive, agriculture and banking sectors.

Syria and Idlib 

The ministers have also discussed Syria and the speedy completion of work to create the Syrian Constitutional Commission.

"We discussed international problems, focused on Syria, - said Lavrov - reviewed implementation of the agreements reached within the framework of the Astana format at the highest level, at the level of experts, reviewed implementation of the decisions by the Congress of the Syrian National Dialogue that took place in Sochi within the framework of creating a constitutional commission, this work continues. We discussed the tasks of its prompt completion”.

A joint meeting of Russian and Turkish foreign, defense ministers will be held in Moscow, where the sides will discuss the situation in Idlib, Syria, according to Lavrov.

"These issues [situation in Idlib] are being discussed between foreign ministries, as well as between our military, intelligence services. We have not finished this work today, we will have an additional meeting with the participation of all our colleagues”.

Indeed, while Lavrov was meeting Turkish foreign minister Cavusoglu, Turkish defence minister was holding different meetings together with MIT head, Hakan Fidan.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister, commenting on the Syria situation, said that Ankara is interested in the elimination of terrorists in Idlib as they threaten the country’s national security.

Turkey's ambiguous remarks

At the same time, he added: “While eliminating terrorists, it is unacceptable to harm the lives of civilians. This can provoke a flow of refugees, drama, a human catastrophe”.

Words that revealed that in fact Turkey, which is supporting islamic mercenaries in Idlib, is quite uncomfortable with the whole situation. 

Finally, the Russian foreign minister has called for minimizing the risks to the population of Idlib, saying that "the de-escalation zone was not created so that fighters could hide behind peaceful citizens."