Russia-Turkey relations are developing dynamically, says Russian upper house speaker

ANKARA, May 16. /TASS/. Relations between Russia and Turkey are developing dynamically in various spheres, with a good political climate between them, speaker of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house Valentina Matviyenko said on Thursday. "Relations between Russia and Turkey are developing dynamically," she said at a meeting with the staff of the Russian embassy in Ankara that was organized as part of her official visit to Turkey. "Political climate [between Moscow and Ankara] is good." "You know about our successful cooperation, despite the problems and nuances of the anti-terrorism efforts in Syria and in other international and regional conflicts," she noted and stressed the role of diplomatic missions in maintaining relations between nations. "We need practical results of the work of our foreign missions. I think we will soon be assessing them by such criteria as what has been done by an embassy or a trade mission and how it influenced relations," she said. She said that her meetings with Turkey’s leaders had been adjourned for Friday. "In general, the atmosphere is right, it is good. There is interest in the development of cooperation, including between the parliaments. And it is important," Matviyenko stressed. She recalled that the two countries are implementing two large-scale projects, namely the construction of the TurkStream gas pipeline and of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant. "It is a higher level of cooperation. It is innovation cooperation, even strategic one in certain areas," she said. Apart from that, in her words, interest to the study of the Russian language is on the rise in Turkey as it gives young people a chance to build a successful career at joint ventures. "We must give credit to the Turkish authorities which take steps to increase the number of educational establishments offering Russian language classes," she added. Read more