Putin, Erdogan to discuss trade restrictions abolishment Wednesday

SOCHI, May 3 (PRIME) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet on Wednesday to discuss lifting trade restrictions, according to the agenda seen by PRIME.

“An exchange of opinions on a wide array of issues in bilateral relations is on the agenda of the current negotiations,” the materials said.

“Progress in fulfillment of the agreements reached during the sixth meeting of the council for cooperation at the highest level is to be considered, including efforts by the governments on both sides to lift the existing restrictions in the trade and economic relations, by tracing the path of their future progress.”

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin and Erdogan will discuss problems of Russian grain exports to Turkey: “The entire continuum of bilateral trade and economic relations will be discussed. It would be natural to assume that this topic will be mentioned as well.”

In March, Turkey slapped a 130% duty on imports of Russian wheat, corn and other products cancelling the country’s duty-free regime. The market saw the step as an attempt to exert pressure as Russia is yet to unban imports of Turkish tomatoes and some fruit after an earlier conflict involving downing of a Russian Su-24 jet by Turkish air forces.

According to the meeting agenda, Russian gas pipeline project Turkish Stream will be among the discussed issues.

Turkey is also about to finish legal framework preparations to assign nuclear power plant Akkuyu the status of a strategic investment, which will allow for refunds of value-added tax amounting to more than U.S. $1.3 billion.

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