Building relations between Russia and Turkey is a very difficult, but effective work, said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in an interview with the Kazakh Tengrinews agency.
“If we talk about relations with Turkey, we have a very difficult, very difficult, but very effective work. Joint work. Difficult because it hinders and hinders the fact that Turkey is a NATO member. Of course, it hinders, but in itself, I would say, even a unique experience, when one country is in NATO, another country is not a member of NATO, “TASS quotes the words of the Russian minister.
According to Shoigu, Russia and Turkey manage to find compromises even where it seems impossible. He also recalled that Russia, together with Turkey, is conducting patrols in the north-east of Syria. “And we are working together to fight terrorists … we are working together with refugees,” the Russian minister said.
In addition, Shoigu recalled Russian-Turkish cooperation to resolve the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“This is such a very difficult operation. That is how I would like to call it and nothing else. Because it involved a huge number of arguments, elements, motives. After all, you must agree, when two fraternal peoples, our two close ones, are at enmity with each other. neighbor, those with whom we lived, I will repeat myself, and we will continue to live in peace, harmony and friendship …
On the other hand, Turkey’s involvement in this, so it was necessary to talk and deal with Turkish colleagues as well. Our president, who, believe me, made a titanic effort to make all this happen. And everyone had to persuade. That is, there was no one who would say: “I agree, just convince them.” No, I had to convince everyone, of course. And we, at our level of colleagues or defense ministers, we also spoke with our Turkish colleagues. But what has been done today is, firstly, that people have stopped killing each other. Secondly, I hope that now is the time for them to switch to bilateral contacts and talk to each other, start talking. I mean Armenia and Azerbaijan. “
The Russian minister added that “here … a lot depends on the relations that have developed in Russia with Turkey. New players also appear, old neighbors appear, but they appear with their own proposals. I mean Iran. This is the development of infrastructure , this is a railway, this is hydropower, and transport links. There are many questions. “