The Russian and Turkish presidents vowed to restore their friendship yesterday, ending an eight-month stand-off over the Syrian conflict as economic pressures and the failed Turkey coup drive the two regional powers together.
Vladimir Putin greeted Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a former imperial residence outside St Petersburg overlooking the Gulf of Finland, for their first meeting since Turkish forces shot down a Russian military aircraft on the Syrian border in November last year.
The “axis of friendship” between Moscow and Ankara had been resurrected, Mr Erdogan said following more than four hours of talks, adding that relations between the two countries would be closer than before the quarrel over Syria that brought them to the brink of military conflict.