Meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkiye Hakan Fidan

On the Russian side, the meeting was also attended by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Lavrov SergeiMinister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov Ushakov YuryAide to the President .

The meeting took place at the Galiasgar Kamal Tatar State Academic Theatre in Kazan.

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Beginning of meeting with Hakan Fidan

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Minister, I am delighted to see you. Welcome to Russia.

I know that you had several meetings and made some useful contacts in Moscow not only with your counterpart [Sergei Lavrov], but also with representatives of various government agencies.

Relations between our countries have been following an upward trajectory, which makes us happy. We have long since gone beyond purely formal contacts in our relations, they are indeed genuinely friendly with new substance being added to this relationship. This is largely attributable primarily to the position of President of the Republic of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Please, convey my best wishes to him. We are always looking forward to seeing him in our country.

I am glad to have the opportunity to meet with you on the sidelines of today's event and discuss current matters of interest for our two countries.

Welcome, Mr Minister.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkiye Hakan Fidan (retranslated): Mr President, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to have a meeting with you, considering how busy you are, and your packed schedule.

Mr President [Erdogan] sends you his best wishes.

It is true that there have been a lot of developments recently in our region and on the international agenda. Your experience in this regard means a lot. We have so many issues to discuss.

We have had a very eventful programme over the past two or three days and were able to exchange our views.

Once again, thank you for offering me this opportunity, Mr President.

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