OREANDA-NEWS. US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper believes that Turkey should work more with NATO to resolve the situation in Syria, and not with Russia. The head of the Pentagon voiced the corresponding position, speaking on Thursday in Brussels at the German Marshall Fund in anticipation of the meeting of the Alliance’s defense ministers.

"Turkey is moving in the wrong strategic direction. It should look more towards NATO and less towards Russia", he said, answering the question about the close cooperation of Ankara and Moscow on the situation in Syria. He also didn't agree that the agreements between Russia and Turkey on Syria represent the largest diplomatic achievement for the Russian Federation. "Only time will tell whether Russia will benefit from its actions in Syria", he argued.

On October 22, Russian and Turkish presidents Vladimir Putin and Tayyip Erdogan at a meeting in Sochi adopted a memorandum on joint actions to resolve the situation in northeast Syria. According to the document, the Russian military police and the Syrian military are introduced from October 23 to the areas bordering the Turkish operation zone in Syria.