PM Yıldırım to visit Russia

Turkish Prime Minister Bİnali Yıldırım visits Russia today. It is the first high-level Russia-visit since the Erdoğan-Putin meeting in St. Petersburg in August.

Yıldırım will first come together with Russian Prime Minister Medvedev. Earlier, the Turkish premier congratulated him on his party's win in the election in September 2016. He is also expected to meet President Vladimir Putin.

The Turkish premier and his Russian counterpart will seek to establish a multidimensional cooperation in many areas, and deepen the relations which was almost frozen a couple of months ago. Both countries also aim at reaching a $100-billion trade volume.

The working progress in the Turkstream gas pipeline, in which parties have already reached a mutual understanding, the price cut in natural gas, the progress in Akkuyu nuclear power plant which has been undertaken by Russia, the cooperation in defense and regional affairs particularly Syrian and Iraqi issues will be the main topics during the meetings.

As President Erdoğan hinted yesterday, the trade in local currencies is expected to be on Yıldırım's agenda, too.