OREANDA-NEWS. On September 2, Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, was on a working visit to Istanbul, Republic of Turkey, at the invitation of Minister for Foreign Affairs Ali Babajan.

During the talks the situation in Transcaucasia in the light of the consequences of the Georgian aggression against South Ossetia was discussed, along with Turkey’s initiative for creating a Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform. Also examined were questions pertaining to Russian-Turkish relations in the political, economic and commercial fields. The mutual interest was reaffirmed in the further expansion of cooperation with the aim of taking bilateral relations to the level of an advanced many-sided partnership. In this context the necessity of developing further the summit- and high-level dialogue was stressed and the prospects of new contacts between the leaders of the two countries were discussed.

A frank exchange of views took place on a number of regional and international issues, particularly interaction in the Black Sea Region.