Erdoğan heads to Moscow for talks with Putin

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is due to head to Moscow later Friday for a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and officials.

After meeting Putin one-on-one, Erdoğan will lead a group of Turkish ministers to attend the sixth High-Level Cooperation Council between Russia and Turkey.

The two sides are expected to agree a series of arrangements on economic, cultural and tourism cooperation, which are due to be revealed in a news conference late Friday.

Erdoğan is set to depart from Ankara Esenboga Airport at 10.30 a.m. local time (0730GMT).

After the meetings, the Turkish delegation will be hosted at a banquet.

Before returning to Turkey in the evening, Erdoğan will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin wall.

The last meeting between Erdoğan and Putin was held in August after Turkey and Russia patched up the fallout from the November 2015 downing of a Russian jet over the Turkey-Syria border.

Since the summer, Russia has relaxed the sanctions imposed on Turkey in response to the jet incident and the countries have worked together to bring a cease-fire and political solution to Syria.

Relations were tested in December when the Russian ambassador in Ankara, Andrey Karlov, was killed in the capital. However, Putin declared the shooting a “provocation" designed to undermine Turkey-Russia relations.